Huawei, Alibaba, Prosus, Microsoft, Starbucks, L'Oreal, BP, Pearson, News Corp., Disney, Nikola, Zhaopin, and other company executives.
China
Huawei officially issued a document on the adjustment of positions in the automotive business. Yu Chengdong will be promoted to chairman of Automotive BU, with the overall goal of helping Huawei achieve commercial success in the field of smart cars. In the future, Huawei will continue to increase its investment in automotive-related fields. Jin Yuzhi, President of Huawei's Optical Product Line, recently took over as CEO of Chebu. The outside world speculates that Yu Chengdong's resignation as CEO of Che BU may be related to the strong return of Huawei's mobile phone business, and Yu Chengdong may spend more energy on the mobile phone business.
Former chairman of Alibaba Group Daniel Zhang on September 10, unexpectedly, stepped down as chairman and CEO of Alibaba Cloud Intelligent Group and was replaced by Wu Yongming. In addition, Wu Yongming and Brooklyn Nets owner Tsai Chongxin officially replaced Daniel Zhang as Alibaba's CEO and chairman of the board on September 10, respectively. Daniel Zhang only continued as a partner of Alibaba, completely leaving the front line of Alibaba's business. Less than three months ago, on June 20, 2023, Alibaba announced that Daniel Zhang would step down as chairman and CEO to be replaced by Tsai Chongxin and Wu Yongming, respectively.
Zhaopin.com issued a letter signed by Chairman Guo Sheng, announcing the appointment of Zhang Yuejia as the president of Zhaopin.com Recruitment Group, fully responsible for the daily operation and management of the company. Also promoted this time are Wang Ge, former senior vice president of the group, and Zheng Xiao, former senior director of human resources, who were promoted to co-president of the group and executive vice president of human resources of the group, respectively.
Starbucks announces the appointment of Molly Liu as Executive Vice President of Starbucks and Co-CEO of Starbucks China, effective October 2, 2023. Liu Wenjuan has served as Chief Operating Officer of Starbucks China since 2021 and previously served as the company's general manager of digital innovation. Starbucks China has not previously created the position of co-CEO.
Cosmetics giant L'Oréal Group announces that Vincent BOINAY succeeds Fabrice Megarbane as President and CEO of L'Oréal North Asia and will succeed Frederic ROZE as L'Oréal Group's Chief Global Growth Officer, effective in the first quarter of 2024. In addition, Xiaoyu Ma, former Vice President and General Manager of L'Oréal China's Premium Cosmetics Division, will serve as Deputy CEO of L'Oréal China, a new position created in L'Oréal China. Vincent BOINAY will take full full duty from February 2024.
Yuan Renguo, former chairman of Moutai Group and Kweichow Moutai, has passed away. A person close to Moutai said Yuan Renguo died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Yuan Renguo served as chairman of Moutai Group for 7 years and chairman of listed company Kweichow Moutai for nearly 20 years. In September 2021, Yuan Renguo was sentenced to life imprisonment for accepting bribes and confiscated all his personal property.
globe
BP announced the resignation of chief executive Bernard Looney. The company said Looney was not entirely transparent about his past personal relationships with colleagues. Less than four years ago, he took over the London-based oil giant and embarked on an ambitious but controversial plan. BP said after appointing Murray Auchincloss as interim CEO that the company's strategy had not changed and it planned to stick to its energy transition plan.
Pearson's Board of Directors announced the appointment of Omar Abbosh as its new CEO and Executive Director on September 20, effective early 2024. Omar will succeed Andy Bird, who has decided to step down as CEO. Omar is president of Microsoft's Industry Solutions business, where he is directly responsible for driving sales, services and solutions for Microsoft's largest customers worldwide. Prior to joining Microsoft, he spent three decades at Accenture, where he held numerous senior leadership roles, including Chief Strategy Officer, and eventually served as CEO of the global communications, technology and media businesses.
South Africa's Naspers and Dutch-listed Prosus announced that Bob van Dijk will step down as CEO from both companies at the same time. Prosus is one of the majority shareholders of Chinese internet giant Tencent. The companies announced that Ervin Tu, the current head of the investment business, will assume the role of interim CEO of both companies. Two years ago, Ervin Tu joined Naspers and Prosus from SoftBank Group. Currently, Prosus owns 26 percent of Tencent, which has a market value of $387 billion. Bob van Dijk, after stepping down as CEO, will remain in the advisory role until September 30 next year.
Starbucks said company founder Howard Schultz would step down from the board. Schultz acquired Starbucks in 1987 and built it into a global coffee giant, with more than 36,000 stores in countries ranging from the United States to Japan. The 70-year-old CEO was Starbucks CEO three times, twice "out of the mountains" when the company was in trouble. Last year, he carefully selected and trained veteran Laxman Narasimhan, now 56, to serve as Starbucks' first externally hired CEO.
Fox Corporation and News Corporation have announced that media mogul Rupert Murdoch will step down as chairman of their boards. Murdoch will officially step down in November. After stepping down, he will be appointed honorary chairman of both companies. Murdoch's son, Lachlan Murdoch, will become News Corp's sole chairman and will continue as Fox's executive chairman and CEO.
The chief information officer of The Walt Disney Co. has left, the second highest-ranking executive to leave in three months as CEO Bob Iger reinvents the entertainment giant. Diane Jurgens left earlier this month after three years in office. Jurgens joined Disney in October 2020 and is responsible for Disney's global enterprise technology organization under the leadership of then-CEO Zhengbo Bao. Disney announced in June that Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy would be leaving and taking sick leave.
Amazon is poised to hire Panos Panay, Microsoft Microsoft's chief product officer, to manage the business unit responsible for Alexa and Echo smart speakers. Panos Panay previously led Microsoft's Windows team and played a central role in the company's development of hardware businesses such as Surface computers. Panay announced on social media that after 19 years at Microsoft, he decided to "turn the page on a new chapter." However, he did not disclose where he would go next. Dave Limp, a longtime head of Amazon's hardware division, said in August that he would retire from the company by the end of the year.
U.S. electric truck maker Nikola Corp. announced the appointment of former GM president Mary Chan as COO to lead Nikola's engineering, programs, product, supply chain and manufacturing teams, effective October 9. A month ago, Steve Girsky, another GM veteran and chairman of Nikola, became CEO in an attempt to turn the troubled electric truck company around.
United Airlines Holdings said company insider Michael Leskinen was promoted to chief financial officer nearly four months after Gerry Laderman announced plans to retire in 2024. Leskinen joined the Chicago-based airline in 2018 as Managing Director of Investor Relations and most recently served as President of United Airlines Ventures.