Peter Chou is stepping down as CEO of HTC and will be replaced by company chairwoman Cher Wang, dubbed "the most powerful woman in wireless" by Forbes.
Chou will stay on as head of the firm's Future Development Lab.
It seems he's taking the blame as the Taiwan phone manufacturer struggles against rivals like Samsung, Xiaomi and Apple.
Wang and Chou are long-standing colleagues: they founded HTC in 1997 and it quickly gained success by making OEM smartphones to be branded by mobile operators around the world.
It was HTC behind the O2 range of XDA phones in the early 2000s and devices sold under the Orange name in the UK.
It then went under its own branding and was seen as an important innovator in the smartphone industry. But its stature has diminished in recent years as it was overtaken by other manufacturers.
Its now left with only one truly successful handset - the HTC One series of Android devices but their sales pale in comparison with those of the current giants like Samsung.
HTC has also produced some Windows Phone handsets - including a WP version of the HTC One M8 - but it was seen as only dipping its toe in the Microsoft water.
The company's tagline is "Quietly Brilliant".
It now needs to shout about it.
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