Lazada's new executive president role to 'assist' CEO raises questions
In a highly unusual move, Lazada has promoted Pierre Poignant to the role of executive president, less than half a year after appointing Lucy Peng as its chief executive officer.
Poignant co-founded Lazada with the former chief executive Maximilian Bittner. Photo: LinkedIn.
Poignant co-founded Lazada with former chief executive Maximilian Bittner. He made way for Peng, who is Lazada’s chairman and one of Alibaba’s 18 founders, in March.
The Frenchman also took on the role of chief operations officer and was the CEO of Lazada eLogistics when Peng was appointed.
While it is unclear what responsibilities Poignant will take on and why such a role was created or needed when there is already a CEO, The Drum understands from sources that Lazada’s staff was told about Poignant’s appointment during a townhall meeting last Monday (August 28).
In response to The Drum’s questions, a spokesperson for Lazada said, "Pierre Poignant has been appointed Executive President in August 2018, reporting to Lucy.”
However, in his LinkedIn profile, Poignant stated that he is ‘leading business operations for the group’. Both Peng and Poignant were absent at the launch of LazMall last Friday (August 31).