JD.com appoints retail chief as new corporate president- PingWest

JD.com appoints retail chief as new corporate president- PingWest

JD.com appoints retail chief as new corporate president

6 hours ago

JD.com, one of China's largest e-commerce companies, appointed Xu Lei, chief of its retail businesses, as its new corporate president. 

Detail: In a filing to HKEX, Richard Liu, JD.com's founder, chairman and CEO, announced a slew of executive appointments. Xu Lei, who joined the company in 2009, has been a veteran within its most important online retail division, serving in numerous posts including sales, marketing, operations and branding, etc., and has been groomed to become the heir to the founder for a long time. Although, he did have a brief stint at another e-commerce company, but was brought back to JD.com in 2013 when competition in the industry became fiercer, and became the mastermind behind the retail giant's massive annual 618 (June 18) shopping extravaganza.

Context: Born into a military family in Beijing, Xu is known for his relaxed and energetic public presence, pragmatic management approach, as well as toughness towards colleagues. Xu was also the hero for JD.com's key pivot from relying on web traffic to smartphone+web, as he served as the chief of the company's mobile division during that transition. 

When Liu was involved in a personal sexual scandal in the US and had to step back in 2018, Xu stepped forward into the front line, and devised a corporate restructure plan that better positioned the company for the competition ahead. He became the first rotating CEO for the retail division when JD.com announced the mechanism in 2018, but quickly consolidated power and became CEO last year when the company went public in Hong Kong. Industry chatters suggest that Liu put heavy trust on Xu, while insiders mentioned that Liu once said at an internal meeting that "those who don't obey Xu Lei, don't obey me."

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