JD.com said on Thursday that Lei Xu, president of the Chinese e-commerce giant, has been appointed as chief executive officer and will succeed Richard Liu, effective immediately.
Xu will also join the company’s board as an executive director, while Liu will retain his title as the board chairman, JD.com said.
Last year, the company said Liu would step away from the day-to-day operations, handing those responsibilities over to Xu and switching his focus to JD.com’s long-term strategy.
Liu, who started the company that would become JD.com in 1998, will also spend more time mentoring younger management and contributing to the revitalisation of rural areas.
Last month, Chinese regulators asked JD.com – as well as Alibaba, Baidu and Weibo – to prepare for more audit disclosures, sources said, as Beijing steps up efforts to ensure domestic companies remain listed in New York.
This came as China’s regulators are considering a proposal to allow their US counterparts to inspect audit working papers of some Chinese firms that do not gather sensitive data.
- Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell
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