Pinduoduo appoints CEO Chen Lei as chairman of the board

Outgoing chair Colin Huang will work on research in food science and life sciences.

Pinduoduo has appointed CEO Chen Lei to take up the position of chairman, after accepting the resignation of founder Colin Huang, who has stepped down from the board and will devote his time to exploring new long-term opportunities, according to a press release.

Huang said that he will work on research in food science and life sciences after stepping down from. He advised Pinduoduo to explore what it needs to do next if it wants to sustain its pace of growth in 10 years, but felt that he was not the best person to handle this role.

Further, as the pandemic brought on external changes and accelerated changes in Pinduoduo’s operations, he expressed that the company should create a new generation of leaders and managers that should be given the room to shape the company.

Chen is taking over as the chairman of the board while concurrently holding the position of CEO. Prior to his appointment as CEO on 1 July 2020, he was the company’s chief technology officer and closely involved in strategic and operational decisions as a member of the founding team.

Chen studied computer science at Tsinghua University in Beijing and obtained a PhD in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In the company’s Q4 conference call with analysts, Chen said that Pinduoduo will invest in agriculture and food technology, and evaluate global opportunities in alternative proteins, food safety and precision farming, he said.

The company also aims to build up a faster and lower-cost agriculture logistics infrastructure platform that will reduce waste and speed up delivery of perishable food, thus making groceries more affordable, he said.