Top Microsoft exec joining Baidu for greener pastures

Zhang Yaqin, a top executive for Microsoft Corp in China, is leaving the United States-based company to join local search provider Baidu Inc.

The 48-year-old Microsoft veteran who calls company founder Bill Gates his mentor said his mission has been "accomplished" more than a decade after joining the computer software firm.

For more than a decade, Zhang, corporate vice-president of Microsoft and chairman of its Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group, has headed the company's largest research and technology incubator outside the US.