Carl Pei was one of the founders of OnePlus, alongside Pete Lau, and helped turn the company from a little-known “startup” (read: division of OPPO) into one of the most popular Android smartphone brands worldwide. However, Pei has seemingly now left his role at the company after nearly seven years.
The move first came to light by Reddit user JonSigur, who published alleged screenshots of internal memos at OnePlus. The messages listed the company’s leadership structure, with Pei notably absent. The memos also noted Emily Dai, who was in charge (or could still be in charge) of OnePlus operations in India, was recently appointed as the head of the Nord product line globally. Pei was previously in charge of Nord, and was prominently featured in the documentary about the phone’s development.
We reached out to OnePlus for a statement, and a spokesperson declined to comment. That adds more credibility to the story — if it were false, it would be extremely easy for OnePlus to outright deny it.
OnePlus’ other co-founder, Pete Lau, is still at the company and holds the position of CEO. However, he has diverted some of his attention away from OnePlus, as he took on a limited role at its parent company OPPO in August.
