Jean Liu is stepping down as president and from the board of Didi, the Chinese ride-hailing giant she co-founded a decade ago and had led at the time of its botched US share sale in 2021.
Once Didi’s public ambassador and among the most high-profile female leaders in Chinese tech, the 45-year-old will remain at the company as chief people officer, according to an email sent by Didi chief Cheng Wei and Liu to employees on Sunday.
She joined Didi from Goldman Sachs in 2014 and hosted Apple’s Tim Cook two years later in Beijing, securing $1bn from the US tech giant to fuel Didi’s growth. She won billions more from investors such as SoftBank. When driver-passenger violence broke out in a Didi car, she flew to the scene to comfort relatives.