Lenovo 2015 Annual Report Download - page 129

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2014/15 Annual Report Lenovo Group Limited
DIRECTORS’ REPORT
BIOGRAPHY OF DIRECTORS AND SENIOR MANAGEMENT (continued)
Biography of directors (continued)
Independent non-executive directors (continued)
Mr. Yang Chih-Yuan Jerry, 46, has been an independent non-executive director of the Company since November 6, 2014. Prior
to that, he was the board observer of the Company since February 20, 2013. He holds a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree
of science in electrical engineering from Stanford University and currently serves on the board of trustees of Stanford University.
Mr. Yang co-founded Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ listed) and served as its chief executive officer from June 2007 to January 2009. He
also served as a member of the board of directors of Yahoo! Inc. until January 17, 2012. During such appointment, Mr. Yang
focused on corporate strategy and technology vision. Mr. Yang was also instrumental in building strategic business partnerships,
international joint ventures and recruiting key talent.
Mr. Yang also served as a director of Yahoo! Japan Corporation (Tokyo Stock Exchange listed) from January 1996 to January 2012,
an independent director of Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ listed) from July 2000 to November 2012 and a director of Alibaba Group
Holding Limited from October 2005 to January 2012. Mr. Yang is currently an independent director of Workday Inc. and Alibaba
Group Holding Limited (all NYSE listed).
Biography of senior management
Mr. Gianfranco Lanci, 60, joined the Group in April, 2012 and is currently the Corporate President and Chief Operating Officer
of the Company. He is the leader of all of the Group’s five geographies, the PC and Enterprise Business Groups, with end-to-end
responsibility for the Group’s performance and business management system in these areas. Prior to that, Mr. Lanci was COO and
Executive Vice President of the Company and President of PC Group, EMEA and AP. Mr. Lanci has substantial experience across
the PC business, including leadership roles at Texas Instruments and Acer. He was appointed as president of Acer Inc. in 2005
and in 2008 became chief executive officer and president. Under his leadership, he led Acer to the number two position globally
and number one in EMEA while recording record profitability for three consecutive years. He holds a degree in engineering from the
Politecnico of Turin.
Mr. He Zhiqiang, 52, joined the Group in 1986 and is currently the Senior Vice President of the Company and President of
the Ecosystem and Cloud Services Business Group. This group is responsible for building Lenovo’s ecosystem and customer
relationship through cloud services, as well as exploring and driving growth in the broader personal and enterprise Internet
services. Prior to that, Mr. He was the chief technology officer and held various leadership positions in Lenovo, particularly in
overseeing Lenovo’s Research & Technology initiatives and systems. Mr. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer communication
from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and a master’s degree in computer engineering from the Institute of
Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Peter D. Hortensius, 54, joined the Group in May, 2005 and is currently the Senior Vice President of the Company and the
Chief Technology Officer with responsibility for Lenovo’s technical strategy, R&D of systems and technology, and exploration of
emerging areas. He leads a worldwide team that focused on innovation for smartphones, tablets, PCs and servers and is widely
known for his extensive expertise in product and technology research & development.
Dr. Hortensius has held several key leadership positions in Lenovo including most recently President of the Think Business Group
where he managed the company’s commercial product portfolio and was responsible for increasing market share and profitability
in enterprise segments and in new growth areas like small-to-medium business. His focus areas included driving leadership in
Lenovo’s core global commercial business, growing Lenovo’s workstation business, and managing Lenovo’s global enterprise
business in server and related products. Dr. Hortensius also led the business team that negotiated the IBM x86 server acquisition.
Prior to the Think Business Group president role, he served as president of the Product Group where he managed both the
company’s commercial and consumer PC product portfolio, and enterprise business.
Prior to that, Dr. Hortensius spent 17 years with IBM, including 10 years at IBM’s Watson Research Center and his last role at IBM
was as the vice president, Products and Offerings, for IBM’s PC Division. Dr. Hortensius earned his doctorate degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Manitoba in Canada.
Mr. Liu Jun, 46, joined the Group in 1993 and is currently the Executive Vice President of the Company and President of the
Mobile Business Group, responsible for driving Lenovo’s profitable growth in smartphone and tablet and developing Lenovo’s
smart TV business. Prior to that, Mr. Liu held a broad range of leadership positions in Lenovo, including senior vice president of
the Company, president of Lenovo Business Group, Products Group, Consumer Business Group, Global Supply Chain and Lenovo
China. Mr. Liu holds a bachelor’s degree in automation and an EMBA, both from Tsinghua University. Mr. Liu also completed
executive programs at Harvard and Stanford Universities.