Baidu to speed up promotion of younger talent as 53-year-old president Zhang Yaqin opts for retirement
- Zhang Yaqin, president of new business at Baidu, becomes first executive at search engine giant to opt for retirement
- Baidu to promote more employees in their 20s and 30s to management ranks
Baidu said it will promote more employees in their 20s and 30s to management as part of efforts to speed up leadership renewal at the search engine and autonomous driving company.
As part of the plan, Zhang Yaqin, 53, its president of new business, opted for early retirement under a new programme for senior executives.
Formerly a senior executive at Microsoft in Asia, Zhang joined Beijing-based Baidu in 2014, overseeing among other things the restructuring and commercialisation of its cloud and artificial intelligence business in the past two years.
“We will speed up on the rejuvenation in 2019, promoting more of those born in the 1980s and 1990s into management roles,” Robin Li Yanhong, 50, Baidu’s billionaire co-founder and chief executive, said in a memo posted on the company’s official WeChat account.
“After years of dedicated work, he wants to spend more time with family,” Li said about Zhang’s impending retirement. “We understand and respect his choice, and thank him for his hard work in the past, and wish him all the best in life, health and family.”