Hi Ivan,

It is a great pleasure to have the chance to get in touch with you, and I am truly grateful that you are willing to listen to my thoughts and to give me the opportunity to express them fully. I deeply value this chance for an honest conversation.

Regarding your current arrangement with Michael, I fully understand and respect your decision. I hope the two of you can improve your working relationship and rebuild a solid foundation for cooperation.

Here, I would first like to introduce myself formally, and then explain in full my relationship with the Mirlux project and what has actually happened over the past year.

1. About Myself

My name is Albert Li. I graduated from Qingdao University of Science and Technology, where I majored in Supply Chain Management and minored in Computer Information Management.

I have been engaged in procurement and supply chain management for more than ten years, with extensive experience in sourcing and supply chain management for sanitary ware and home products. My detailed work history can be found in my résumé.

I believe my greatest strength is that I not only have solid traditional procurement experience, but also a background in computer information management. I am proficient in Python and excel at data analysis and business system development.

I have always believed that procurement management should not stop at the traditional tasks of requesting quotations, negotiating, placing orders, and following up on orders. Through technology, we can digitize and automate a large number of routine business processes, improve efficiency, and at the same time collect data that is hard to obtain under traditional management. Then, through data analysis and statistical methods, we can identify problems and opportunities and provide a basis for business decisions.

A concrete example:

The procurement management system at WeSourcely was developed independently by me.

When I joined in October 2025, WeSourcely's business processes still relied mainly on Google Sheets. I believed this approach was not only inefficient, but also prone to data errors, missing information, and irregular process management.

So I took the initiative to develop a business management system that integrated the processes previously scattered across Google Sheets and enabled more standardized business management. To this day, the system is still in use.

This is also what distinguishes me from an ordinary procurement manager: I can not only take charge of the execution and management of procurement, but also use technology to improve how the entire supply chain operates.

This is my full résumé, for your reference.

2. My True Relationship with the Mirlux Project

I joined WeSourcely in October 2025. The first client project I took on after joining was Mirlux's business.

At the time, Michael's procurement business had not yet been transferred to WeSourcely; we had just established contact with Connie and Grace. I remember that Michael still had some reservations about me taking over all procurement work. It took a long time before we obtained his contact details and established direct working contact with him.

Frankly, at first I even thought Michael was a somewhat difficult client to communicate with, and I was a little worried about future cooperation. But as we worked together more, I gradually came to understand his way of working, and gained a comprehensive understanding of Mirlux's products, suppliers, and procurement situation.

During this period, I also systematically analyzed Michael's historical procurement PIs, and found that certain mirror products had undergone a round of price reductions of 15%–20% in July and August. These historical data became an important basis for my subsequent analysis of procurement costs and cost-reduction potential.

1. Division of Responsibilities within WeSourcely

WeSourcely's management model separates procurement from business development; each client is handled by a procurement lead and a business lead respectively.

For the Mirlux project:

Procurement lead:

I (Albert Li)

Business lead:

Nora

Our division of responsibilities was very clear.

I was responsible for all work related to actual procurement, including:

• Supplier communication and procurement negotiation;
• Confirmation of purchase orders and PIs;
• Production progress and delivery management;
• Negotiation of payment terms and settlement;
• New product development and research into new suppliers;
• Handling product quality issues and supplier claims;
• Procurement cost analysis and optimization, and so on.

Nora, on the other hand, was responsible for day-to-day communication with you, business meetings, and gathering your requirements; she would organize the specific tasks and hand them to me to handle, and then report the results back to you.

Under LEO's management rules at the time, only the business lead could contact the client directly; procurement staff were not allowed to communicate with clients directly.

As a result, for a long time, although I was in fact responsible for all of Mirlux's procurement work, you did not know of my existence, nor who was actually handling these procurement matters behind the scenes.

I want to emphasize this point, because many of the things that happened later were in fact negotiated, driven, and ultimately resolved by me with the suppliers.

2. Key Procurement Matters I Actually Handled and Drove

To give you a clearer picture of my work on the Mirlux project, I will list a few typical cases.

First, product quality issues and supplier claims.

On several occasions, the claims against Connie for power adapters and the small round mirrors of the cosmetic mirrors were handled by me—I communicated with Connie and drove the claims process.

In addition, the USD 6,000 compensation finally secured for Michael's batch of 800 bathroom mirrors that had a moisture problem was also negotiated by me.

The subsequent return-to-factory repair of these mirrors, the handling plan, and the entire execution process were likewise followed through by me from start to finish.

Second, the change in the export tax rebate policy for mirrors and the 9% price increase.

Because the export tax rebate policy for mirror products was abolished, suppliers faced cost pressure and proposed an overall price increase of about 9%.

Faced with this problem, I worked with Michael to study solutions, and ultimately pushed for and confirmed the approach of receiving payment through an offshore account in Hong Kong, thereby avoiding this price increase.

However, this payment arrangement is subject to compliance and insurance-coverage limitations, so it also introduced new payment risks.

Third, the renegotiation of Michael's payment terms.

Because payment through the offshore account could not be covered by the original insurance, Michael wanted to cancel the original term of 50% of the payment one month after the goods arrived, and change it to a 25% deposit with the 75% balance paid before arrival.

I communicated with Michael on this for nearly a month, repeatedly adjusting several proposals, and finally negotiated the payment terms as follows:

• 15% deposit;
• 60% balance paid before the goods arrive;
• 25% balance paid one month after the goods arrive.

Unfortunately, because the policies and practical conditions in Guangdong and Zhejiang differ, Michael's payment arrangement could not be replicated directly on Connie's side.

I list these cases not to emphasize personal credit, but in the hope that you can understand: in the past, the supplier negotiations, cost issues, quality claims, payment terms, and the resolution of complex problems in Mirlux's procurement business were in fact always driven by me.

3. Supplier Research and Cost Reduction for Mirlux

Beyond day-to-day procurement execution, I also did a great deal of supplier research and market analysis.

For example, I once disassembled the mirror samples Michael provided, analyzed the product structure, materials, and electronic components, and requested quotations from other factories to confirm whether the current procurement price was reasonable and whether there was room for further cost reduction.

After extensive comparison, I have to admit:

On the premise of ensuring the same product quality, and taking into account the 9% VAT reduction and the payment terms, I believe Michael's factory has achieved a good balance among price, quality, and payment terms. For bathroom mirrors—our largest category—it is indeed the most suitable supplier at this stage.

Of course, if one pursues only the lowest procurement price, there are indeed cheaper options on the market.

For example, some Chaozhou factories quote prices 20%–30% lower than Michael's. But after comparing product structure, materials, and electronic components, I believe this price difference comes mainly at the expense of product quality.

So the cost-reduction measures I mainly adopted were:

• In each procurement round, selecting products that still had some room for bargaining;
• Securing more competitive prices wherever possible during new product development;
• Striving for an additional 1%–2% reduction each time through volume consolidation, procurement negotiation, and so on;
• In an environment of continuously rising raw material prices and a continuously appreciating RMB, rejecting suppliers' requests for price increases as far as possible, keeping prices at the baseline of "no increase."

In the end, the overall cost reduction for the Mirlux project was about 3%.

4. The Real Reason for My Disagreement with Leo

The problem lay precisely here.

In WeSourcely's cooperation agreement with you, the commission comes mainly from procurement cost savings; only when cost savings are achieved is there a 30% commission.

Because the overall cost reduction for the Mirlux project was only about 3%, the project's profit could hardly even cover the salary costs of Nora and me.

In this situation, Leo repeatedly asked me to require Michael to lower the quality of the materials used in the products in order to reduce procurement costs, or to directly contact the lower-quoting factories, push for sampling, and ultimately replace Michael's factory to achieve cost reduction.

But I consistently and firmly opposed this.

There are two reasons for my opposition.

First, from the perspective of the client's interests and professional ethics, I cannot harm the brand's long-term interests for the sake of short-term commission.

I have worked in the e-commerce industry for over ten years and know very well what product quality means to a brand.

A decline in product quality will inevitably increase customer complaints, returns, and after-sales compensation. But the more serious consequences go far beyond that.

For e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, persistent quality problems can affect a product listing's ranking, customer reviews, and brand reputation, and in serious cases may even lead to the store being penalized or closed.

The company I previously worked for had several Amazon stores that suffered severe losses due to product quality problems, amounting to millions of dollars.

So I am very clear about how much long-term loss sacrificing product quality for short-term procurement savings can bring to a brand.

My professional ethics do not allow me to actively promote a practice that may harm the client's brand just to earn a little commission.

Second, from the perspective of my personal professional responsibility, I also cannot accept this practice.

I was the procurement lead for the Mirlux project.

If, in the end, because I replaced suppliers with lower quality or reduced the materials used, this led to a large number of customer complaints or even a serious procurement incident, then as the person actually responsible for procurement decisions and execution, I would inevitably have to bear the corresponding responsibility, and might even face legal risk.

Therefore, I could not accept a plan with obvious quality risks merely to meet short-term cost-reduction targets.

It was precisely over this issue that Leo and I had fierce arguments in numerous meetings, several of which ended in discord, and we could never reach agreement.

I believe that this fundamental disagreement over business philosophy and client interests was the direct cause of my eventual departure from the company.

5. How I Left WeSourcely

Later, Leo found Jason as my replacement.

From what I understand (I have seen his résumé and his departure certificate from his previous company), Jason had worked at his previous company for only three months, and his highest education was a correspondence college diploma. Compared with me, his only apparent advantages seem to be a lower labor cost—his salary was about half of mine—and his complete obedience to Leo.

What I did not expect was that Leo chose to let me go the day before Tomas came to China—that is, one week before you came to China.

From a normal business perspective, this timing was very surprising to me. After all, I had been Mirlux's procurement lead for a year, and when Tomas last came to China, I was also involved in hosting him.

Even if the company believed there were problems with my work, it should, by any reasonable standard, have arranged the handover after the hosting and communication were over.

But at the time, Jason had been on board for less than ten days and had not even fully understood Mirlux's products and business, yet he was already arranged to take over my work.

The reason Leo gave for the dismissal was:

"Refusing to carry out the company's decisions; working passively."

But I believe this statement is completely untenable.

I did not refuse to perform my procurement duties, nor was I passive about my work. What I opposed was the plan to exchange product quality for short-term cost reduction.

In my view, these two are fundamentally different, though it is true that my stance did hinder Leo from realizing his cost-reduction plan.

As for why Leo chose to let me go before you and Tomas arrived, I have my own judgment and doubts.

Because I had previously participated in many supplier negotiations for VG and was aware of some internal company matters, and because Leo and I had clear disagreements on these important issues, I cannot rule out that he wanted to end my employment early to prevent me from revealing the company's "secrets" when I met you.

Of course, this is only my personal judgment based on the circumstances at the time; you are entirely free to form your own independent judgment in light of other information.

6. Why I Decided to Contact You Directly

After being dismissed, I did indeed feel very wronged.

Over the past year, I cherished this job very much, and gradually developed a strong sense of belonging and responsibility toward the Mirlux project.

I had always hoped to be involved in Mirlux's procurement and supply chain management for the long term.

In my view, I had done my utmost to do the right thing, and had indeed achieved some results.

Over the past year, I always put the interests of the Mirlux brand first. This was not only a matter of job responsibility, but also of the feelings I had invested in this project.

What I cannot accept is that, although I was clearly acting to protect the client's interests and holding to the procurement principles I believed to be right, I was in the end dismissed by the company in this way because of that very insistence.

After leaving, I kept thinking about one question:

Since I am already familiar with Mirlux's suppliers, products, procurement processes, and history, why shouldn't I continue to be responsible for this work directly?

In fact, I believe I can not only do procurement execution well, but also build a more complete supply chain management system for you.

My capabilities are not limited to:

• Procurement planning;
• Supplier development and management;
• Procurement negotiation and cost control;
• Order, production, and quality management;
• Warehousing and international logistics management.

I can also use my background in computer technology to help you build a digital supply chain management system, integrating data and automating processes across procurement, suppliers, quotations, orders, payments, inventory, and logistics.

By building a complete data system, we can not only improve efficiency, but also use information such as historical procurement prices, sales data, inventory turnover, and supplier delivery performance to help you make more accurate procurement plans, optimize inventory, and continuously improve supply chain costs.

I hope to be not merely a procurement executor, but someone who can truly help you manage and develop the entire supply chain system.

This is the real reason I hope to have the opportunity to work for you directly.

7. About Michael Contacting Me and This Video Call

In fact, before I left, I did not have your contact details, so even if I had such an idea, I would not have known how to reach you.

Later, I thought of Michael.

I knew Michael had your contact details, so I reached out to him and asked whether he could help me get in touch with you.

In the process of communicating with Michael, I explained to him my experience at WeSourcely and the reasons why I believed I had been treated unfairly.

To help him understand why Leo chose to let me go before Tomas came to China, I also specifically explained to him the disagreement between Leo and me, and my knowledge of these internal "secrets" of the company.

But at the time, I had not yet figured out how to express to you my wish to work for you directly, so I did not explicitly raise this plan with Michael. Still, I had a feeling Michael might have guessed something.

What happened next you already know: Michael contacted me and asked whether I could immediately show you the relevant evidence in my possession.

But at that point I faced two practical problems:

First, I had not yet received the severance compensation to which I was legally entitled.

Second, I was worried that if I disclosed the relevant information to Tomas or others immediately after leaving, Leo would quickly deduce that I was the source, causing me unnecessary trouble.

So I hoped to first properly handle the matters related to my departure, and then, at an appropriate time, explain the situation to you in full and provide materials that support the relevant facts.

This is why I did not show you all the evidence right away.

8. Finally, a Few Sincere Thoughts I Want to Express

The above is my relationship with the Mirlux project and the main events of the past year.

I write this not to complain about my former company. I only hope you can know:

• In the past, Mirlux's procurement work was in fact handled and driven by me.
• My main disagreement with Leo was not about work attitude or execution ability, but about different understandings of the relationship between procurement cost reduction and product quality and the client's long-term interests.
• I hope to continue to be involved in Mirlux's business, and am willing to take on more comprehensive supply chain management responsibilities.

I respect your judgment on the whole matter, and I understand that you need to learn about the situation from multiple perspectives.

If you are willing to give me a chance, I hope to prove my value through actual work.

I believe that, with my experience in procurement, supply chain management, sanitary ware products, and digital systems, I can help you build a more stable, efficient, and transparent supply chain system.

I hope our future cooperation will be a long-term partnership built on trust, professionalism, and mutual interests.

Thank you again for being willing to listen to me today.