Ant Financial’s Tianhong Asset Management has just announced the replacement of long-standing chairperson Jing Xiandong
On 15 October Tianhong announced that Jing Xiandong (井贤栋) would be resigning from the position of chair to be replaced by Ant Financial president Hu Xiaoming (胡晓明).
Hu is a veteran of both the Chinese banking sector and Jack Ma’s Alibaba, having previously worked for China Construction Bank and China Everbright Bank.
He joined the Alibaba Group in June 2005, before subsequently holding key positions with Alipay, Ali Finance and Ant Financial.
Tianhong has cited “work factors” as being the reason behind Jing Xiandong’s replacement.
Tianhong Asset Management was first established in November 2004 with registered capital of 510 million yuan, and was then headed by Ant Financial chair and CEO Jing Xiandong.
At the time it’s largest shareholder was Ant Financial with a 51% equity stake, followed by Tianjin Trust Co., Ltd. (天津信托有限责任公司), which held 16.80% of shares.
In 2013 Tianhong teamed up with Ant Financial’s Alipay to launch the Yu’e Bao fund, which leveraged the immense online user base of the latter to rapidly become the world’s largest money market fund.
