(Yicai Global) Feb. 14 -- The 65-year-old chairman of Hisense Home Appliances Group has resigned after less than a year in the position to allow a younger generation to take the reins at the Chinese television set maker.

Lin Lan, who took on the role of chairman in March last year, is retiring and will be replaced by the firm’s 51-year-old President Jia Shaoqian, the Qingdao, eastern Shandong province-based firm said in an internal announcement today. Lin will still remain as a senior advisor on the overseas market.

In addition, the head of the firm’s display business Yu Zhitao, who was also born in the 1970s, will become executive vice president. After the reshuffle, Hisense’s senior management team will only be made up of executives under the age of 53.

Both Jia and Yu are very strong performers in the TV maker’s team. The group has logged a 77 percent jump in profit and 45 percent surge in revenue in the four years since Jia started managing the firm’s overall operations. And Yu was in charge of the display business, Hisense’s biggest earner.

Hisense was the second-most-popular TV retailer in the world last year, with overseas sales soaring 12.2 percent year on year, according to a recent report by market research firm AVC Renco. Sales grew strongly in Europe, Japan and emerging markets.

Editor: Kim Taylor