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JD.com founder Richard Liu hands over chief executive’s role to Xu Lei, becoming the latest Chinese tech billionaire to step back
- Xu Lei, with more than 10 years at the company, will also join the board as an executive director, while Richard Liu remains as chairman
- In 2021, JD.com reported an operational profit of US$600 million, down 66.7 per cent year on year
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E-commerce giant JD.com said its founder Richard Liu Qiangdong has handed over the chief executive role to company president Xu Lei, in the latest example of a Chinese tech billionaire retreating from daily operations.
Xu, with more than 10 years at the company, will also join the board as an executive director, while Liu remains as chairman where he will “continue to focus on guiding the company’s long-term strategies, mentoring younger management, and contributing to the revitalisation of rural areas”, JD.com said in a statement on Thursday.
“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”, Liu said.
Liu is among a number of high-profile Chinese tech founders who have stepped back from the daily operations of their companies to dilute the so-called “key man risk” amid a regulatory crackdown in China’s internet sector. Others include Colin Huang Zheng from Pinduoduo, Kuaishou Technology’s Su Hua and Zhang Yiming, the founder of TikTok owner ByteDance.
JD.com's last major management reshuffle was last September, when Xu was promoted to president of the company to run “day-to-day operations”, the firm said at the time.
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