JD’s president Xu Lei has been appointed as CEO of the company to succeed its billionaire founder Richard Liu, the online retailer announced Thursday. Xu will join the company’s board of directors as an executive director while Liu will remain as board chairman. Liu will focus on guiding the company’s long-term strategies, mentoring younger management, and leading the revitalization of rural areas, the statement says. Xu was named president of the company in September, paving the way for Liu to step back from daily operations. Liu joins a slew of Chinese tech tycoons including Pinduoduo’s Colin Huang and ByteDance’s Zhang Yiming to leave CEO roles in the companies they founded in the past year. [JD press release]