Lazada announced today that it has appointed founding member Magnus Ekbom as the CEO for its Malaysian operations, replacing Leo Chow. This news was first reported by DealStreetAsia.
The company has not disclosed why Chow stepped down from his role and what his new role will look like. However, it states that under Chow’s leadership, “Lazada Malaysia has seen tremendous success with record-breaking growth and achievements year-on-year.”
Nonetheless, Ekbom has been with the e-commerce company since its inception and has served as the CEO of Lazada Indonesia from 2012 until 2015.
In his new position, he will be responsible for further growing Lazada presence in Malaysia and driving its long term strategy as head of the flagship platform of Alibaba Group in Southeast Asia.
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Simultaneously, the e-commerce platform has also appointed Jessica Liu as Thailand’s first female country head succeeding Jack Zhang, effective immediately. In her new role, she will continue to serve as the president of Lazada Group and head of LazMall while Zhang will be taking a regional role at the company.
Liu began her career at the publisher China Machine Press, rising to vice president of its economics and management books branch after which she decided to work in Amazon in multiple divisions. She then joined Tmall, a B2C online retail platform operated by Alibaba Group in 2012, initially leading its footwear business. She soon moved to its fast fashion and luxury apparel brands unit.
These appointments come after speculation surfaced around long-running culture clashes between Alibaba and Lazada team in June last year — a claim that was denied by Lazada spokesperson.
Founded in 2012, Lazada is an online shopping and selling e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia which is present in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The company was acquired by Alibaba Group in 2016 after it replaced its CEO with a long-standing Alibaba executive and invested US$2 billion into the business.
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Image Credit: Lazada
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