Didi Global’s co-founder, Jean Liu, has taken a step back from her roles as president and board director of China’s biggest ride-hailing firm. This news came as a part of the internal memo circulated by the company.
Didi, seen as China’s alternative to Uber, will no longer have a president as one of its leadership positions. Liu was formerly a Goldman Sachs banker. However, after a decade-long stint of leadership in Didi, Liu will be their ‘permanent partner’ and will also be retaining the responsibilities she already has such as being the chief people officer.
“I hope that I can focus more on the company’s long-term development in the future,” Liu said in the letter, citing talent and corporate social responsibility as focus areas.
Jean Liu, daughter of Lenovo’s founder Liu Chuanzhi, has been strongly associated with Didi and has been heavily involved in many of its decisions such as including its merger with Alibaba Group, backing Kuaidi in 2015, its takeover of Uber Technologies’s China business, and fundraising from investors including Apple.
In 2021, Didi found itself in the middle of a cyberspace controversy, resulting in many of Didi’s apps being removed from major app stores.. This led to paying a fine of $1.2 billion in July 2022 over data security violations. Didi began to recover from its regulatory challenges in early 2023 when it received permission to relaunch its apps.
