Dongfeng Motor to Meet its New President, Several Senior Executives Under Investigation

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai Jan 18th)– Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. (herein after referred as Dongfeng Motor) will meet a new President, announced the carmaker yesterday. During the 17th session of Dongfeng Motor’s Fourth Board of Directors, a resolution to elect Ouyang Jie as the new President, in succession to Zhu Fushou, has been passed by the board members. Zhu will not retain his position as President at the expiration of his term of office.

According to the published information, Ouyang has served the carmaker for more than 20 years. Before the new appointment, he is the Deputy General Manager and Vice President of the company, General Manager at Components & Parts of Dongfeng Motor and also a Standing Committee Member of the Communist Party of Dongfeng Motor.

It’s known that Dongfeng Motor’s new management change is not usual. Last November, Dongfeng has expelled Zhu Fuzhou from his post as President and authorized representative of the company, following the news that Zhu was under investigation for alleged “severe disciplinary violations”. In this Jan 5th, Zhu was then removed from his positions as Deputy Secretary and a Standing Committee Member of the Communist Party of Dongfeng Motor, and also board director by China’s Stated-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

To be noted, Zhu is not the first Dongfeng official who was under investigation. Since the November 2014 when Chinese government’s investigative team was sent to this state-own company, senior executives as Ren Yong, Fan Zhong and Liu Yuchun were all under investigation for alleged “severe disciplinary violations” and corruption.

According to Dongfeng Motor’s sale and production numbers, the yearly sales of this carmaker in 2015 have dropped 20.89% to only 189,100 units. And we’ve heard that Dongfeng Group has actually only sold 3,873,000 units in 2015, failing to hit its goal of 4 million sales. Under this background, the road in front of Ouyang, Dongfeng Motor’s new President, may not an easy one.