Ding Xuedong, chairman and chief executive of the US$810 billion-under-management sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp (CIC), has stepped down, according to Chinese media reports citing insiders.
No explanation was disclosed on why he had resigned and who will take his position at the Chinese state wealth manager.
Ding, born in 1960, said last month at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong that the sovereign wealth fund manager plans to invest in infrastructure projects in the U.S. as U.S. President Trump calls for a fiscal expansion package to stimulate the world's largest economy.
The Jiangsu province native was named as chairman and chief executive officer of CIC in June 2013 by the State Council, after Lou Jiwei, CIC's previous chairman for over five years, left to become minister of finance three month earlier.
Ding spent most of his career as a senior official within the Ministry of Finance. He became a department director at the ministry in 1994 and was promoted to vice minister at the age of 48. His duties included putting together fiscal policy and overseeing the agricultural sector and the China Appraisal Society, according to the reports.
In 2010, he became the youngest-ever deputy secretary-general of the State Council, a post he held until he was appointed CIC chairman in June 2013.
During Ding’s tenure at CIC, he helped set up CIC Capital, a subsidiary mandated to make foreign direct investments and manage bilateral and multilateral fund investments, in January 2015.
Ding obtained a master’s degree in economics from Zhongnan University of Finance and Economics, currently known as Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, in 1985. He later received a doctoral degree in economics from the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences in 1997.
He has also been chairman of the China International Capital Corp., one of the country’s top investment banks since October 2014.