On the move

Gayton promoted to VP, general counsel at Ford

Bradley Gayton has been promoted vice-president and general counsel of Ford Motor Company. He will take up the position on Jan 1 next year and replace David Leitch, who is set to retire. Gayton has served as corporate secretary and assistant to general counsel since April 2012. In his new role, Gayton will lead the company's litigation, tax and intellectual property rights areas, and advise the board of directors and senior management on a wide range of legal matters. Gayton will directly report to Ford's CEO Mark Fields.

Qihoo 360 unveils major shake-up in key positions

Yang Chao will take over as chief business officer of Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd following Liu Yun's resignation. Yang will be responsible for sales. Before moving to Qihoo 360, Yang Chao was president of Dell Greater China and vice-president of Motorola. Meanwhile, Liu Xiaozheng will become chief strategy officer, and will be responsible for the company's overall strategy including its strategic investment business.

Liu Yun joined the company last year after working for Google Inc as a global vice-president.

In another move, Yu Guangdong announced he would be resigning from his position as senior vice-president for personal reasons, but will continue to be an adviser. Yu joined Qihoo 360 in 2006, and has been responsible for the development and commercialization of products.

Zheng decides to step down from senior VP role at ICBC

Zheng Wanchun has stepped down as senior executive vice-president of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd, according to a company statement. Media reports have linked him with China Minsheng Banking Corp Ltd, where he could take up the post of president. Zheng, 51, has spent the majority of his career at ICBC after joining the bank in 1991. He has served as assistant to the general manager of the banking department at ICBC's Hainan branch, and deputy general manager of the industrial and commercial credit department. Zheng later moved on to become vice-president of China Huarong Asset Management Corporation, and then president of China Great Wall Asset Management Corporation. In 2013, he returned to ICBC as senior executive vice-president.

VP Wass plans to leave Uber after reshuffle at the top

Niall Wass, senior vice-president of Uber Technologies Inc's Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions, plans to leave the company at the end of the year. The decision follows Uber's reshuffle in corporate business last summer. The car-hailing company has revamped its business outside the United States market, and all international affairs will be handled by a new department, which will be spearheaded by Ryan Graves, senior vice-president of global operations. After the shift, Wass was told to report to Graves, instead of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. He refused to accept this new arrangement. Wass joined Uber in June 2014, and has participated in the financing of Uber's China business. In September, the San Francisco-based car-hailing major announced that it had acquired $1.2 billion in fundraising in China, including investment from search engine giant Baidu Inc.

Huang Dong joins Mango TV in charge of technology

Huang Dong has joined Mango TV, which is Hunan Television's online streaming site, as chief technology officer. Before taking up the role, Huang served as vice-president of technology at Tudou Holdings Ltd and vice-president of Technology at Youku Tudou Inc. He was in charge of design and operational production of a series of large-scale products and systems at Youku Tudou Inc. Huang's rich experience in open-source operating systems and intelligent hardware is a major factor in his decision to join Mango TV. In June, the online streaming site announced it had completed the first round of fundraising worth 500 million yuan ($78.2 million), which values the company at 7 billion yuan. The second round of funding will be launched in the near future, and Huang's appointment will help boost investor confidence.

In March, Mango TV announced that the number of average daily users was more than 30 million. That figure has helped the site move into the top tier of the Internet video industry in just 12 months. The revenue generated from advertising has surpassed 1 billion yuan this year.

Hong promoted senior vice-president at Microsoft

Microsoft Corp has announced the promotion of Hong Xiaowen to senior vice-president of the group. Hong was chairman of Microsoft Asia Pacific R&D division and president of the company's Asia Research Institute. He has worked at Microsoft for 20 years. In 1995, he joined the group's research institute in the United States as a senior fellow. As Microsoft's chief scientist and voice recognition expert, Hong founded and led the search technology center. During his eight years as president of Microsoft Asia Research Institute, Hong offered technology support to Bing search, Office, Microsoft smart cloud Azure, PowerBI and Windows.

Taurel takes over as new board chairman at Pearson

Pearson Plc, the world's leading educational company, has appointed Sidney Taurel as chairman of the board of directors. Glen Moreno, who has held the position for a decade, is scheduled to step down at the end of this year. Taurel, who is a board director and chairman of the compensation committee at IBM Corporation and McGraw Hill Financial Inc, will take over on Jan 1. Taurel joined Eli Lilly, the global pharmaceutical firm, in 1971 and served as CEO from 1998 to 2008. Taurel was also senior adviser at global investment bank Moelis & Co and an advisory board member at pharmaceutical companies Takeda Pharmaceutical and Almirall. Moreno has witnessed a period of major changes during his tenure. In 2012, Pearson merged Penguin with competitor Random House and retained a 47 percent stake in the new business, which is the world's biggest publisher.

Scandal-hit VW appoints Sedran head of strategy

Thomas Sedran has been appointed as head of group strategy at the German automaker Volkswagen Group. He will report to Matthias M��ller, CEO of Volkswagen Group, according to the corporate announcement. Sedran was named a member of the Management Board of Adam Opel AG, in charge of strategy and operations, in 2012. From July 2013 to June 2015, he was president and managing director of Chevrolet and Cadillac Europe. Sedran is the second senior management figure to be appointed by VW in the wake of the automaker's diesel-emissions scandal, which broke on Sept 18. The German carmaker has fired a number of executives in the aftermath of the diesel-emissions test scandal, including Ulrich Hackenberg, the former research and development chief of Audi, and Wolfgang Hatz, his counterpart at Porsche.

China Daily And Agencies

(China Daily USA 11/30/2015 page15)