On the move

JD's CTO Zhang leaves, to join family abroad

Zhang Chen (pictured), chief technology officer of JD, China's e-commerce giant, stepped down in March to live overseas with his family. JD will continue to tap his expertise in the role of a consultant from June 30. JD said it will name Zhang's successor later. Zhang has been working in management in software and technology industries. He joined JD in April 2015 as senior vice-president in charge of technical research and development. Prior, he served Yahoo as global vice-president.

Alibaba snags ex FB AI whiz Jia for key unit

Chinese e-commerce and technology giant Alibaba appointed Jia Yangqing, former artificial intelligence scientist of Facebook, as vice-president of technology in March. He will lead the big data computing platform. Jia graduated from Tsinghua University, and received a doctoral degree in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. While working at Facebook, he mainly focused on technical support services such as voice recognition, natural language processing and computer vision, for the company's AI products. He also worked at Google in the past.

Tencent Music names Pan as Wu's replacement

Wu Weilin, vice-president and head of copyright management department of Tencent Music Entertainment Group, stepped down in March. Wu was appointed senior consultant of the company. TME said Wu helped enhance copyright protection and management, as well as building commercial cooperation with many global record companies. Pan Caijun, founder of Ultimate Music, a digital music content and service aggregator, and a subsidiary of TME, was appointed the new copyright management head. Prior, Pan was head of the entertainment business of Finnish telecom company Nokia in China.

PetroChina appoints Hou Qijun as president

PetroChina Co Ltd last month appointed Hou Qijun, 52, as its president. Hou has more than 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. In 2002, he served as deputy general manager of Daqing Oilfield Co Ltd, the largest oilfield run by PetroChina. In 2007, he became general manager of the company's Jilin branch. In 2011, he was appointed Party chief and deputy general manager of its natural gas and pipeline branch. In 2013, he served as general manager of the planning department. In 2017, he was appointed vice-president and a board member of PetroChina.

Pinduoduo hires ex Baidu president as panel head

Chinese online group discounter Pinduoduo announced in March that Lu Qi, 58, former president and chief operating officer of tech giant Baidu Inc, will lead its newly set up technical advisory committee. Lu will help optimize application of artificial intelligence in personalized services. Lu graduated from Fudan University and Carnegie Mellon University, majoring in computer science. He joined Yahoo in 1998 and was then promoted to executive vice-president. In 2008, he was appointed executive vice-president of Microsoft Inc. In 2017, he joined Baidu Inc and resigned last year.

Compiled by China Daily

(China Daily 04/01/2019 page9)