(Yicai Global) March 16 -- The board of directors at Alibaba Health Information Technology has appointed Zhu Shunyan as its new chairman, chief executive and executive director in order to prepare the firm for future innovation.

The 49-year-old is president of Alibaba Group Holding's Innovation Initiative Segment and has extensive experience in leading innovative business, the health unit said in a statement yesterday. He will replace Chairman Wu Yongming, who is resigning but will stay on as a non-executive director, and CEO Shen Difan, who will rejoin parent company Alibaba Group.

Alibaba Health, which focuses on medicine sales and web healthcare, hopes the move will help the company accelerate the development of new infrastructure for healthcare digitization, the statement added.

Zhu joined software maker UC Browser as senior vice president in 2007. Alibaba Group then purchased his employer in June, 2014, and put Zhu in charge of the Innovation Initiative Segment in June 2019, according to a report from The Paper.

Editor: James Boyntn