(Yicai Global) Dec. 17 -- Ping An Insurance, the largest Chinese insurer by market value, has appointed three more chief executives, one of which may become a successor to Chairman and Chief Executive Ma Mingzhe who was the second-highest-paid chairman in a Chinese listed company in 2016.

Li Yuanxiang will be responsible for consumer-facing services, Xie Yonglin for corporate clients, and Chen Xinying for tech-related services, the Shenzhen-based firm said in a statement on Dec. 14. The co-CEOs will manage an increasingly complex group of units which Ma, aged 63, has created to turn the insurance giant into a supermarket of financial services.

Li, the executive deputy general manager and executive director, joined Ping An Insurance in 2004. He obtained his master's degree in finance from the University of Cambridge.

Xie, the senior vice president of Ping An Insurance and a chairman of Ping An Bank, joined the group in 1994, starting off as a clerk. 

Chen, the chief operating officer, chief information officer, and executive deputy general manager, has master's degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She started working for the group in 2013.

Founded in 1988, Ping An Insurance manages assets worth about CNY7 trillion (USD1 trillion) and over 1.8 million employees. It owns more than 30 subsidiaries for businesses that touch the fields of finance, banking, medical tech and smart city management, as well as tens of tech innovation labs.

Editor: Emmi Laine