More CEOs are behaving badly…
Sanebull on You may have heard… that the CEO of JD.com, one of China’s largest e-commerce websites, was arrested in Minneapolis on Friday. But now the company is saying CEO Richard Liu was falsely accused of sexual misconduct and will return to business as usual. The police are still actively investigating the situation, so this may not be the last we hear about it.
You may be asking… why was this guy in Minneapolis, anyway? Apparently, Liu is a student at the University of Minnesota in a program for “top-level executives” working in China. So, not your typical university experience – the average age of the students enrolled in this program is 50.
JD.com is kind of like… the second-place Amazon of China, selling everything from appliances and apparel to groceries. The company also has some high-profile investors, including Walmart and Tencent, who combined hold 28% of JD.com. Liu himself owns 16% of the company but has 80% of the voting rights (so he calls the shots). The company is also moving west and plans to compete with Amazon in Europe by 2019. Another CEO [allegedly] behaving badly – what’s new?
