Saturday, September 29, 2018

Rumor: Ming Thein's role with Hasselblad has ended.

UPDATE: Ming has confirmed in the same comments thread that he is no longer with Hasselblad.

Note the comments thread on his recent review on the Nikon Z7.

Notably, he is asked multiple times if he still works for Hasselblad, which questions he ignores. In a more recent comment, he overtly hints that he is no longer with Hasselblad.

I believe this company has to this very day not commented in the rumor that DJI had substantially increased its stake, and the parent Vorndran Mannheims has been if anything more silent. It is not at all clear who even is on the management team at this time, I think the last two announcements were "Thein joins as Chief of Strategy" and "Oosting steps down as CEO, replaced by interim CEO"

Based on some other extremely vague and slender information, I consider it faintly possible although not likely, that Hasselblad is performing, or has performed, some background checking that has not worked out quite as expected.

8 comments:

  1. Rumor has it Thein bored the Hassy B.O.D to actual death with his incredibly sharp pictures of absolutely nothing at all. He had to go.

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  2. Reading the comments I am once again struck by how badly and rudely he deals with even mild criticism. On the other he he shamelessly laps up vapid praise. Honestly I can’t see his apparent personality fitting into any kind of environment where compromise and acceptance of differing viewpoints is required, corporate or otherwise. I’m sure there will be all sorts of high falutin’ reasons why he has been pushed off his perch at Hasselblad, but I doubt that he’ll be putting forward his insufferable sense of superiority and entitlement as one of them.

    Or is that two of them?

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    1. He explicitly denies it, but both his attitude and what can actually be verified about his life story (as well as his car, camera, and watch habits) are consistent with "spoiled little rich kid."

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  3. I have often wondered how half these people get these 'ambassador' roles. I can understand when someone like Joel Meyerowitz say have but a load of the ones I come across produce generic and some what boring work. I guess a load get the deal as people follow them without knowing of the rich history of the art and know no better, the images though seem to have little meaning and when there are a set of them seem to have little to no narrative.

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  4. Well there you go, he's published his side of the story, and basically even that boils down to "I'm right and you're all wrong and I'm going to take my ball home", and "how come all these customers are behaving as if _I_ represent the company??? I'm responsible for all the good future stuff that these DJI idiots don't understand, all the others are responsible for all the BAD stuff!!!"

    Pathetic, really....

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    1. Yep, it really comes across as the sort of remarks you'd expect from a true professional, one with experience both in the private equity industry, as well as senior executive experience in a multinational corporation, don't you think?

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  5. Thein is on the spectrum. I believe he has aspergers. Hence he finds dealing with other peoples opinions and points of view difficult.

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    1. Fun fact! Many aspies are "self-diagnosed" and are actually just assholes with fairly average neurology.

      Real high-functioning aspies and autistics develop conscious mechanisms to replace the unconscious ones that are attenuated in them, and get along just fine.

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