Richard Liu will pass the CEO mantle of the company he founded, JD.com, to its current president Lei Xu. Xu will join the ecommerce and tech giant’s Board of Directors and Liu will stay on as Executive Chairman.
Liu is just the latest high-profile Chinese tech boss to step down in the midst of increased government scrutiny of China’s domestic technology sector. Other recent departures have included Zhang Yiming, Founder of TikTok owner ByteDance; Colin Huang, Founder of social ecommerce firm Pinduoduo; and Su Hua, Co-founder of video platform Kuaishou.
Xu was appointed President of JD.com a mere seven months ago, a promotion from his previous role as CEO of JD Retail.
“I believe that JD has built a strong footing in the industry with sound management structure and a large number of excellent business leaders,” said Liu in a statement. “Lei is highly regarded both inside and outside the company and has been instrumental to driving JD’s consistent stellar business performance and formulating strategic decisions. I’ll devote more of my time to JD’s long-term strategies and future drivers as we continue to work on the most challenging yet valuable things.”
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“In the past 19 years, Richard has established and upheld JD’s strategic positioning as a supply chain-based technology and service provider and the principle of ‘doing business the right way,’ setting a strong foundation for our future endeavors,” said Xu in a statement. “I share his business philosophy and commitment, and will continue to create value to our users, business partners and the society.”
