Ant Financial names new president amid Alibaba management reshuffle

Ant Financial Services Group has appointed Simon Hu, former head of Alibaba Cloud, as its president, the latest follow-up in Alibaba’s organizational restructuring announced three days ago.

Hu will report to Ant Financial Chairman and CEO Eric Jing, the fintech giant said in a statement Thursday.

Since joining Alibaba in June 2005, Hu had served in various management positions within the company, including chief risk officer of Ant Financial from November 2013 to October 2014. He then served as the president of Alibaba Cloud beginning in November 2014.

Jing referred to Hu's return as "a major upgrade" for the company, which serves over 900 million users globally with its wide array of internet finance solutions.

According to Jing, Hu is expected to bring new breakthroughs to the development of inclusive finance and the commercial credit system, as well as open financial technology collaboration.

Prior to Alibaba, Hu had worked in financial institutions including China Construction Bank and China Everbright Bank for over 10 years.

In a corporate restructuring announcement on Monday, Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang thanked Hu for his contribution to the cloud computing unit, saying Hu will be serving the organization in a different capacity and announced in due time.

Under Hu's stewardship, Alibaba Cloud, founded in 2009, has quickly grown to become the third-largest cloud computing services provider for infrastructure as a service, trailing Amazon and Microsoft.