JD.com: Zhou Bowen Resigns, Soon Sze Meng Quits

On Tuesday, media outlet 36Kr reported that Zhou Bowen, Chair of JD.com‘s Technology Committee, resigned from JD.com and plans to start a business in the AI industry. Moreover, Soon Sze Meng, who has served as the President of South East Asia for JD.com for two years, has left his post. He will join TiffinLabs, a Singapore-based food tech company, as CEO.

After Zhou Bowen was invited by JD.com CEO Liu Qiangdong to the company in September 2017, he became the vice president, responsible for the related businesses of AI Research and platform department. He reported directly to Liu Qiangdong. According to the report, Zhou Bowen’s position at  JD.com is still displayed as a “manager” with no specific description. According to people familiar with the matter, there will be delays in internal information. At present, Zhou Bowen has resigned, but he is still shown as the President of JD Cloud & AI.

JD.com‘s official website also shows that Dr. Zhou Bowen is an IEEE Fellow. He once served as Director of the AI Foundations Lab at IBM Research, Chief Scientist of IBM Watson Group, and a Distinguished Engineer of IBM, holding several key leadership positions during his 15-year tenure at IBM’s headquarters.

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Soon Sze Meng’s LinkedIn account shows that he graduated from Stanford University and then went to the Kellogg School of Management of Northwestern University for an MBA. He has worked for consulting firm McKinsey & Company and financial services company VISA. Soon Sze Meng joined JD.com in September 2019 and was responsible for the business development of JD.com in Southeast Asia.