On the move
Alibaba takeover to bring new team to Ele.me
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s April 2 announcement that it has increased its stake in app-based food delivery service Ele.me to 100 percent is expected to lead to a new management team at the latter. Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group owned about 43 percent of Ele.me prior to the stake increase, a deal valued at $9.5 billion. Once the transaction receives regulatory approvals, Ele.me founder and CEO Zhang Xuhao (pictured) will chair the company board and also serve as special advisor to Alibaba’s CEO Zhang Yong on New Retail strategies. Wang Lei, the current vicepresident of Alibaba, will be appointed the new CEO of Ele.me. Zhang said he is confident Wang’s experience in management and sales will continue to prove useful.
Jing Xiandong rises to the top at Ant Financial
more vigor to operations and strategy. Jing said he will lead Ant Financial to a brighter future with support from his colleagues.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd announced on April 9 the appointment of current CEO Jing Xiandong as the new president of its affiliate Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group, a financial services provider focused on small to medium-sized businesses. Ant’s former chairman Peng Lei will be the new CEO of Lazada, an e-commerce platform serving the Southeast Asian markets. Lazada is backed by Alibaba that invested $2 billion in it recently. According to Jack Ma Yun, founder and chairman of Alibaba, the executive appointments reflect the group’s intent to groom a younger management team, which Ma believes will add
Chinese baby food firm Beingmate announced the appointment of Xie Hong as its new CEO and president. As the founder of Beingmate, Xie led the group’s sweep of the baby food market in China, with over 100 million yuan ($15.8 million) in milk powder sales in 2011, the company’s first year. Sales soared to 6.1 billion yuan in 2013. But business development suffered due to a 1.7 billion yuan loss in the 2016-17 period. Experts said that appointment is likely to help the group return to the black. Xie left the group in 2011 due to personal reasons. Until the latest appointment, the position of president remained vacant.
Beingmate names founder Xie as president, CEO
LinkedIn China appoints Lu Jian as president
LinkedIn Corp, an online social network for professionals, has appointed Lu Jian as president of its China operations. Upon joining, Lu will be responsible for research and business development of LinkedIn China, and will report directly to Mohak Shroff, senior vicepresident of LinkedIn. Shroff said Lu is a perfect candidate for the job as he demonstrated great business acumen and technical qualifications. Under Lu’s leadership, LinkedIn China will scale new heights, he said. Prior to joining LinkedIn China, Lu was CEO of CCtalk, an interactive education platform under Hujiang Education Technologies Co Ltd, a language learning service provider.