Lenovo appoints Wall Street veteran and ‘China friend’ John Thornton as non-executive director
- Thornton is a prominent advocate of US-Sino economic collaboration, and sits on the board of various tech and finance firms
- Lenovo is looking to revamp its business after profits missed estimates for a second straight quarter
Lenovo Group, the largest PC maker in the world, has announced the appointment of American businessman and “China friend” John Thornton as an independent non-executive director and a member of the company’s Nomination and Governance Committee.
Formerly the co-president and director of Goldman Sachs until 2003, Thornton has acted as a prominent advocate of economic cooperation between the US and China.
He is currently executive chairman of the mining company Barrick Gold Corporation and non-executive chairman of global asset manager PineBridge Investments.
He sits in high positions on a laundry list of other, often China-connected, firms and organisations.
In a press release on Friday, Lenovo’s chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing said that Thornton would bring the company a “wealth of global leadership, insight, and perspective” from his experience in diverse fields, such as global partnerships, risk management and government and regulatory affairs.