China Vanke Co, China’s second-largest real estate developer in 2018 by contracted sales, has announced a senior management reshuffle that sees Wang Wenjin promoted to group chief financial officer.
52 year-old Wang has taken over Vanke’s top finance job from Sun Jia, who had served as chief financial officer for three years, according to a recent stock exchange announcement by the developer. The role gives the 26-year company veteran overall responsibility for the Fortune 500 company’s finances at the group level.
Most recently serving as Vanke’s chief risk officer, Wang joined the Shenzhen-listed company in 1993, and had served a previous stint as the company’s chief financial officer before being reappointed this month.
A master’s graduate from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Wuhan, Wang has been a member of China Vanke’s board of directors since 2014, and also serves as a director of Vanke Real Estate (Hong Kong) Company Ltd — the developer’s Hong Kong business, and as a Non-Executive Director of Vanke Property (Overseas) Limited
McKinsey Grad to Run South China Operation
With Wang’s re-appointment as CFO, 41 year-old Sun Jia, becomes chief executive officer of Vanke’s southern China business unit, assuming the role previously held by Zhang Jiwen. Sun also has been given the top spot at the company’s long term rental apartment division, as he steps down from Vanke’s board of directors.
A Harvard Business School graduate, Sun joined Vanke in 2007 and had previously served as head of strategy and investment, as well as general manager of both Xi’an Vanke Co Ltd and Shanghai Vanke Co Ltd before being appointed as CFO in March 2016.
Before joining Vanke, Sun had held financial positions with McKinsey & Company and China Netcom Corporation.
52 year-old Zhang Jiwen, who had been in charge of Vanke’s operations in southern China since 2009, has been appointed chief executive officer of Vanke’s Meisha education division, which invests in school projects.
An architecture graduate with a master’s degree in engineering from Tsinghua University, Zhang joined Vanke in 2001, and was appointed the company’s design director in 2003.
Vanke Vows to Focus on Survival
The management reshuffle comes just over a month after the public developer sold HK$7.8 billion ($1 billion) of shares to pay down overseas debt, and a few months after China Vanke chairman said in an internal briefing early in 2019 that the company’s goal is to “tighten its focus” in order to ensure the developer’s survival in the face of the current macroeconomic uncertainty.
In the same announcement to the bourse, Vanke clarified changes to its company structure that were implemented in September 2018 and saw the previous departmental organisation replaced by three overarching business centres, with Zhang Xu head of business development, Sun Jia head of business management, and Wang Wenjin head of business support.
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