Ctrip CEO Jane Sun recently announced in an internal communication that Chen Zhang, former CTO of JD.com, would join the group as special assistant to Chairman and the Chief Architect of Ctrip. The technology and train ticket teams would report to Mr. Zhang. Tongcheng-Elong former CEO Hao Jiang would serve as Product Committee Chairman while Vice President Xiaobo Lou was appointed as COO of International Business Unit (IBU), reporting to Xing Xiong, Executive Vice President of Ctrip.

Chen Zhang worked for Yahoo for 18 years, where he led the development of Yahoo Messenger in Yahoo U.S. In 2008, he came back to China and founded the Yahoo Global R&D center in Beijing, taking responsibility for the development of Yahoo global advertising, personalized products, mobile platforms and applications. In 2015, he joined JD.com as CTO. 

Hao Jiang’s move to Ctrip in March this year marked his second stint with Ctrip, according to Tongcheng-Elong’s 2018 annual report. Mr. Jiang served as Senior Vice President of Ctrip from 1999 to 2015, and deputy chairman and President of Tongcheng-Elong from April 2018 to March 2019.

It was also stated in the communication that, in order to further integrate the IBU platform and the other parts of Ctrip, the air ticketing and hotel technology departments and product department will directly report to air ticketing and hotel departments. (Translated by Elena)