E-commerce platform Lazada's group president Li Chun will take over as group chief executive to help drive the company's next phase of growth.
Mr Li will succeed Mr Pierre Poignant on July 1 but will continue in his current role as CEO of the Indonesian arm of Lazada, the South-east Asian arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group.
He will no longer be group president, a Lazada spokesman told The Straits Times.
Mr Poignant will become special assistant to Alibaba Group chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang, Lazada said yesterday.
The firm noted that Mr Li has an intimate understanding of its business and market landscape and deep experience in technology architecture and product strategy, which will enable him to further strengthen the group across its six markets.
Lazada group chairman Lucy Peng said: "Chun is an experienced business leader who can realise Lazada's vision of unifying commerce with technology to advance South-east Asia's digital economy."
She added that under Mr Poignant's leadership, Lazada has delivered healthy growth over the past two years.
The new appointment is the third change at the helm in three years. Mr Poignant took over as group CEO from Ms Peng in December 2018, nine months after Alibaba appointed Ms Peng - one of Alibaba's 18 co-founders - to replace Mr Maximilian Bittner. Mr Bittner founded Lazada Group in 2012 and was CEO until 2018.
Mr Li joined Alibaba Group in 2014 and became co-president of Lazada in June 2017 and Lazada Indonesia CEO in July last year.
He holds a bachelor's dual degree in mechanics and economics law from Peking University, and a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio State University.
Mr Li said: "There is incredible momentum for e-commerce across the region and, together with our strong local talent, we will step up Lazada's digital innovation and commercial development."
More than 90 per cent of Lazada's staff are local, said the company.
The firm served around 70 million unique consumers in six countries in the 12 months to March 31, it added, while Lazada Indonesia's orders grew more than 170 per cent year on year in the same period.
Reuters cited yesterday two unidentified sources who said the new appointment is due to Lazada's middling performance. A company spokesman told Reuters there was "no truth to this statement".
The firm has struggled to fend off rivals like Singapore-based Sea's e-commerce arm Shopee, which is backed by Alibaba rival Tencent, for control of the fast-growing regional market of 650 million consumers, Reuters said.
Alibaba has long struggled to manage Lazada, of which it owns 90 per cent after investing US$3 billion (S$4.2 billion) since 2016, with employees highlighting a long-running culture clash with management from China, Reuters added.
Three sources also told Reuters that Lazada is examining whether to rebrand or shut LazMall, its take on Alibaba's Tmall marketplace.
The Lazada spokesman told ST: "LazMall is an important business to Lazada and the competition must be worried if they are spreading these rumours."
