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China’s fast-growing LeEco just made a big hire as it continues its U.S. expansion

The hardware maker, which is also buying Vizio, has tapped former Qualcomm executive Rob Chandhok as North American R&D chief.

Qualcomm

Chinese device maker LeEco, which has been on an acquisition and hiring spree in the U.S., said Wednesday it has hired former Qualcomm executive Rob Chandhok to lead its North American research and development efforts.

That follows the recent hiring of Huawei executive Richard Ren to run LeEco’s non-China device business and serve as acting president for North America. In April it hired two former executives from Samsung’s U.S. operations to serve as its revenue chief and chief administrative officer in the U.S.

The company, which makes everything from electric bicycles to smartphones, recently announced plans to spend $2 billion to acquire TV and electronics maker Vizio.

And LeEco is clearly looking to grow further in the U.S., having plunked down $250 million to buy a former Yahoo site in Santa Clara to serve as its North American headquarters.

Chandhok, who served in a variety of roles at Qualcomm until leaving in 2014, was most recently president of IoT startup Helium.

“I’m excited to be able to take all those ideas I’ve had over the years at places like Qualcomm and be in a position to take them directly to a global market with LeEco,” Chandhok told Recode.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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