At Huawei, Matt Bross Tries to Ease U.S. Security Fears

Matt Bross lives in Flint Hill, Mo., a town of 460 people about an hour’s drive northwest of St. Louis. A long driveway leads over a babbling brook to his six-bedroom, seven-bathroom mansion situated on dozens of picturesque wooded acres. It then winds past a statue of Jesus, a 1923 Model T Ford, a horse-drawn carriage, and a flagpole worthy of the Pentagon. The backyard is a Norman Rockwell-meets-Donald Trump spectacle: A baseball diamond and Ferris wheel flank a Bellagio-inspired pool with water slides and dancing fountains. Inside, guests can hit up the bowling alley and Skee-Ball ramp or take in a show in the movie theater. The main room of note, however, is in the basement. It’s the strategic command and control center of Huawei, the giant Chinese communications equipment maker for whom Bross is chief technology officer.

The space looks like a typical office conference room, with its big wooden table in the middle and eight plush leather chairs. Against the back wall is a giant TV equipped with a Huawei videoconferencing system. During a visit to the office in June, Bross (rhymes with “floss”) plops his heavyset frame down at the table, picks up a touchscreen device, and demonstrates how he can video chat with various Huawei offices. He manages much of Huawei’s $2.5 billion R&D budget and tens of thousands of engineers. There’s a button for the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen, another for its U.S. home base in Plano, Tex., and still others for research and development facilities in Mexico, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Thailand, Chile, Sweden, and 13 other places. He runs through the design of a forthcoming networking switch with some engineers, then shifts to business talk with sales prospects. “You look like the prettiest date at the dance,” Bross tells a customer, pouring on the Midwestern charm.