In October, Deng Bin, the Chief Investment Officer of Ping An Group, submitted his resignation to the company due to personal family reasons and will continue to serve until the end of his contract in December 2024.
With the arrival of December, Deng Bin's new destination has also been confirmed. Recently, Sun Life in Canada announced a personnel appointment, stating that starting from January 1, 2025, Deng Bin will serve as the President of Asia Asset Management at Sun Life.
The 'olive branch' repeatedly extends to 'Ping An' executives
It is worth noting that in recent years, Ping An has provided many management talents to the insurance industry.
In 2019, Li Yuanxiang, Executive Director, Co CEO, Executive Vice General Manager, and Chief Insurance Business Executive Officer of Ping An China, resigned from his position due to personal work arrangements. In 2020, he officially became the CEO and President of AIA Group. In June 2020, appointed as a director and chairman of the company. On October 31, 2024, Li Yuanxiang stepped down as a director and chairman of the company, and continued to serve as the CEO and President of AIA Insurance Group.
On November 22, AIA Insurance Holdings Limited announced the appointment of Zhang Xiaoyu as the regional CEO, effective after obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals. On the same day, Zhang Xiaoyu issued an internal letter stating that Yu Hong, former general manager of Ping An Life, will join AIA Life as CEO.
Yu Hong resigned from his positions as Executive Director and General Manager of Ping An Life Insurance in September this year due to his retirement and completion of his term of office. At that time, there were rumors in the market that Yu Hong might join AIA.
In November, Cai Xinfa, former special assistant to the president of Ping An Bank, also joined AIA Group as Chief Innovation Officer.
In addition to two former "Ping An" executives who recently joined AIA, earlier on, Gu Gang, the current Chief New Institutional Development Officer of AIA Life, also came from Ping An. In September 2020, Gu Gang, who had previously been the General Manager of Ping An Life Guangdong Branch, joined AIA Life as the General Manager of AIA Life Guangdong Branch. In May of this year, Gu Gang was approved to serve as the Deputy General Manager of AIA Life. From January to September 2024, Gu Gang served as the Chief Customer Officer of AIA Life Insurance; Starting from October 2024, Gu Gang will serve as the Chief New Institution Development Officer of AIA Life Insurance, responsible for overseeing and managing the business of its Sichuan, Hubei, Tianjin, Henan, and Hebei branches, as well as coordinating the establishment, opening, and development of future new institutions.
As for why AIA favors "Ping An series" executives, the industry believes that AIA, which is currently in an expansion period, continues to attach increasing importance to the Chinese domestic market. As a leading insurance company that has been deeply rooted in the Chinese mainland market for many years, Ping An's executives have advantages in both philosophy and experience. Taking Li Yuanxiang as an example, who was born in Singapore and has rich work experience both domestically and internationally, Li Yuanxiang has worked for the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Prudential Group, Prudential Life Insurance Company, and Ping An of China. He has both an international perspective and a deep understanding of the mainland Chinese market.
All kinds of information show that the expansion momentum of AIA is not decreasing, and the proportion of the domestic market in China is constantly expanding. In the past four years, a total of seven provincial-level branches of AIA have been approved, especially this year, in just two months of October and November, four branches in Anhui, Shandong, Chongqing, and Zhejiang were approved for establishment.
Regarding the recent pioneering measures, Li Yuanxiang stated during the approval of the Shandong branch that "after entering Shandong as planned, AIA will reach over 60% of the life insurance market in mainland China
In addition to expanding its branch offices, AIA Life Insurance also invested 12 billion yuan in China Post Life Insurance in 2022. After the transaction was completed, AIA Life Insurance held a 24.99% stake in China Post Life Insurance. AIA Insurance stated that it believes its equity investment in China Post Life Insurance has expanded its growth opportunities in the Chinese life insurance market and can complement AIA Group's current China strategy in terms of distribution channels and customer base.
Market analysts believe that by investing in China Post Life Insurance, AIA Life Insurance will leverage the advantages of Postal Savings Bank of China in the second and third tier sinking markets to further expand its sales channels and reach a larger customer base.
In addition to AIA and Everbright Financial, Ping An has exported far more talents to the outside world. For example, in 2020, Ren Huichuan, Executive Director and Vice Chairman of Ping An Group, announced his resignation and joined Tencent. He then joined Samsung Property&Casualty Insurance in 2022 and became Chairman of Samsung Property&Casualty Insurance (China) Co., Ltd. in June 2023; In August 2020, Zhou Kejun, former assistant general manager of Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance, joined Weibao as general manager and CEO. In mid-2022, Zhou Kejun was promoted to chairman of Weibao.
Ping An: Continuously cultivating a young and strong management team
Looking at Ping An, industry insiders believe that the focus of Ping An in China is on cultivating composite senior potential cadres. From the recent employment trend of Ping An, many key positions still continue to adopt a bold and unconstrained style, while the trend of specialization, youthfulness, and localization has also emerged.
In terms of the group, this year Ping An issued an internal document stating that Chairman Ma Mingzhe has returned to serve as the Director of Ping An Group's Strategic Development Center, Co CEO Guo Xiaotao has been appointed as the Deputy Director, and Fu Xin will no longer serve as the Director of the Strategic Development Center.
The personnel changes of Ping An Life Insurance are also worth paying attention to. In September, former executive director and general manager of Ping An Life Insurance, Yu Hong, stepped down and announced that Yang Zheng, the party secretary and chairman of Ping An Life Insurance, would be appointed as the temporary head of the company to act as the general manager.
Since 2024, important positions such as General Manager, Executive Director, Deputy General Manager, Assistant General Manager, and Special Assistant to the Chairman of Ping An Life Insurance have undergone changes. In April, Cheng Jianxin's qualification to serve as the general assistant of Ping An Life Insurance was approved. Earlier, the positions of Zhao Fujun, Li Haifeng, and Han Guang, Vice General Managers of Ping An Life Insurance, have also changed, and another Vice General Manager, Wang Guoping, has recently announced his departure. In October, Gong Qiuwei, with Ali's background in Internet retail business, was newly appointed as the special assistant to the chairman of Ping An Life Insurance, while Zhao Jin, another special assistant to the chairman of the board, was an internally promoted talent who once served as the general manager of Ping An Life Insurance Hebei Branch, the general manager of Inner Mongolia Branch, and the general manager of Zhejiang Branch.
It is worth noting that "post-85s" Cai Ting made two consecutive leaps within a year and was promoted to the position of Vice General Manager and Executive Director in July this year. He rose to second place in the management team of Ping An Life Insurance, second only to Yang Zheng.
Obviously, Ping An Life Insurance is in a critical period of "transition from old to new". From the perspective of leadership structure, Ping An Life Insurance needs a young and strong talent team as a solid backing for transformation. Ping An Life Insurance previously stated that in response to recent personnel changes, the company will continue to improve its talent development team system in combination with strategic promotion and business management needs. It will hire young, experienced, and open-minded composite cadres to enrich the management team, continuously strengthen the construction of the company's leadership team, further deepen life insurance reform, and steadily move towards high-quality development.
In addition, other branches of Ping An have also undergone many changes in defense arrangements in recent years. For example, last October, Ping An Health announced the appointment of Li Dou as the chairman, executive director and CEO of Ping An Health's board of directors. In February 2024, Li Dou took over as the legal representative and chairman of Ping An Health Internet Co., Ltd. Before joining Ping An, Li Dou served as the Vice President of Sales and General Manager of Demand in China at Mars Arrow Candy (China) Co., Ltd.
In October, Ping An's financial subsidiary OneConnect announced that the company's board of directors had appointed Tang Xiao as the company's general manager. The new general manager, Tang Xiao, has over 20 years of rich work experience in the banking services field. Prior to joining the company, Tang Xiao served as an executive director and president of Bank of China Financial Technology Co., Ltd. Earlier, Tang Xiao had worked at Jianxin Jinke, a subsidiary of China Construction Bank.
In addition, in November, Lufax announced that celebrity "outsider" Ji Kuisheng, who had served Ping An for more than ten years, had retired due to personal reasons. In addition, Huang Yuqiang and Zhang Xudong also resigned from their positions as directors. The board of directors of Lujin Holdings has appointed Zhu Peiqing as an executive director, and Guo Shibang and Liu Hui as non-executive directors.