After the unexpected death of former chairman Wang Jian, the internal personnel adjustment of HNA Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as HNA Group) is still going on.On August 17, a reporter from Caixin learned that Chen Xiaofeng, the son of the current chairman of HNA Group Chen Feng, was appointed as the deputy CEO of HNA Group, mainly in charge of international business.Earlier in late June, Chen Xiaofeng was appointed as Wang Jian's special assistant, but Wang Jian passed away unexpectedly in France in early July.
Chen Xiaofeng also holds another position as the vice chairman of the board of Swissport, a subsidiary of HNA Group.Swissport is the world's largest ground handling service and freight forwarder. HNA Group acquired the company at a price of 2.73 billion Swiss francs (approximately RMB 17.5 billion) in July 2015.
Chen Xiaofeng's appointment as Vice Chairman of Swissport's Board of Directors was announced on August 1.On the same day, Chen Chao, Chen Feng’s nephew, was also appointed as the Chief Investment Officer of HNA Group, which was originally held by Wang Shuang; the head of HNA Group’s North American business, and the trustee of Hainan Cihang Public Welfare Foundation (hereinafter referred to as Cihang Foundation)Yang Guang resigned from all positions and left HNA Group.According to the Caixin reporter, when Wang Jian was the chairman, Wang Shuang and Yang Guang played important roles in HNA Group’s aggressive overseas acquisitions.
According to the obituary of Chairman Wang Jian's funeral committee of HNA Group, Wang Jian accidentally fell during a business inspection in France and was seriously injured. After rescue efforts failed, he unfortunately passed away on July 3, 2018 local time at the age of 57.During Wang Jian's tenure as chairman, he has always been the real helm of HNA Group hidden behind the scenes.After his death, HNA's official website showed subtle changes in the description of Chen Feng and Wang Jian: Chen Feng and Wang Jian had been referred to as co-founders before, but now they have been changed to main founders and important founders respectively.
On July 13, Wang Jian's memorial meeting was held in Haikou HNA Building. Tan Xiangdong, CEO of HNA Group, revealed at the meeting that in accordance with Wang Jian's wish during his lifetime, the book value of his 14.98% equity in HNA Group held by him was about 70 billion yuan., all donated to Cihang Public Welfare Association.
The unexpected death of Wang Jian also brought an abrupt end to the rare duopoly structure of Chinese companies.On July 7, HNA Group announced that Chen Feng, the chairman of the board of directors, will also serve as the chairman of the board. Soon after, HNA Group confirmed that it will cancel the post of chairman of the board of directors, and Chen Feng will be the full-time chairman of the board, and launched a series of personnel adjustments.
On July 16, HNA Group issued a document internally, and Zhang Ling, the former board director and CEO (D), was promoted to vice chairman, responsible for the management of the group headquarters and HNA Group (International) Co., Ltd. and other key enterprises of the group; CihangSun Mingyu, chairman of the foundation, serves as a director of the board of directors and is responsible for the related work of the party committee and discipline inspection committee of HNA Group; Bao Qifa, chairman of HNA Holdings (600221.SH), serves as a non-executive director of the board of directors and is responsible for the safety operation of the group.Chief Executive Officer (D) is a position unique to HNA Group, roughly equivalent to Deputy Chief Executive Officer.At the same time that Chen Xiaofeng was appointed Deputy CEO (International), Zhang Ling's position as CEO (D) of HNA Group was also canceled and changed to Deputy CEO, who may be mainly responsible for HNA Group's domestic business.
After Wang Jian's death, HNA Group's development ideas have also undergone subtle changes, shifting from diversified development to focusing on the main aviation industry.On the afternoon of July 8, Mao Chaofeng, member of the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee and executive vice governor, led a research team to HNA Group for investigation and also pointed out that the most fundamental experience and enlightenment when reviewing the 25th anniversary of HNA Group’s development history and achievements is:The aviation industry started off and relies on the development of the aviation industry. In order to become a world-class outstanding enterprise in the future, we still need to focus on the aviation industry.■
