The chairman of the world's largest personal computer company in terms of sales is stepping down as the head of the company he founded back in 1984. Liu Chuanzhi will be handing down the keys to Legend Holdings, the parent company of the Lenovo Group, to its chief financial officer, Ning Min.
According to an official announcement made this week, Liu will officially be retiring as chairman of Legend Holdings on Wednesday with Ning taking over his position. Ning will be taking the helm of the world's largest personal computer company as well as overseeing operations in its various businesses that include smartphones, servers, workstations, storage devices, tablets, IT management systems, software, and smart televisions.
The current chairman of Lenovo Group, Yang Yuanqing, mentioned in a statement released on Wednesday that Liu remains to be his mentor and his friend. Yang stated Liu's many contributions to the company and to the development of China as a whole. Yang thanked Liu for everything he has done and assured him that they would stick to his mission for the company.
The 75-year old founder of Lenovo is an iconic businessman in China as he was one of the first entrepreneurs in the country that ventured into the personal computer industry in the 1980s. Liu, along with his colleges from the Chinese Academy of Sciences founded the company in Beijing in 1984, back when it was named Legend. The company was officially incorporated in Hong Kong in 1988.
The legend was initially a state-owned enterprise, but Liu managed to take it private in 2001. Under his leadership, Lenovo underwent a massive reform in the early 2000s, significantly transforming the computer industry in China. Liu briefly stepped down as the head of Lenovo Group in 2011 to focus on the other business owned by Legend Holdings. This including overseeing the activities of a string of investment firms owned by the company, including Hony Capital, Lenovo Star, and Junlian Capital.
Lenovo quickly became a household brand worldwide after it acquired IBM's personal computer business in 2005. The company also eventually acquired IBM's Intel-based server business in 2014. Apart from designing, developing, and manufacturing personal computers, Lenovo also entered the smartphone business in 2012. Just two years after that, Lenovo became the largest smartphone vendor in China.
Lenovo continued to expand its business into other sectors through massive acquisitions. In 2014, the company acquired mobile phone giant Motorola Mobility from Google. The company then followed that up with the acquisition of Fujitsu's personal computer business.
