Jianwen (Jon) Liao

Jianwen (Jon) Liao, Ph.D., has an extensive global career with 25 years of experience in strategy and leadership roles in both academia and industry.

Currently, Dr. Liao is the Senior Advisor to the Chairman at JD Group and an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School. He served as Chief Strategy Officer of JD.com from April 2017 to July 2021. JD.com is the largest eCommerce company in China and was ranked 59th in the 2021 Fortune Global 500. In his role, he oversaw JD’s strategic planning and execution, corporate partnerships, strategic investments, innovation, corporate branding, and public relations. He spearheaded JD’s “Retail as a Service” (RaaS) by decoupling highly integrated businesses such as JD Retail, JD Logistics, JD Health, JD Tech, etc., transforming them into open platforms. He also played a key role in redefining JD’s mission and strategic positioning as “a technology and service enterprise with the supply chain at its core.” Importantly, he crafted and developed JD’s strategy system, encompassing mindsets, methods, and management (3M), significantly improving JD’s strategic capabilities. Additionally, in his capacity for strategic investment, he played an instrumental role in key investments, including VIPS, Google, Farfetch, Li & Fung, FiveStar (formerly Best Buy of China), to name just a few.

Before joining JD, he had academic experience spanning the United States and Asia and is well-known for his cross-disciplinary research in strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He served as the Associate Dean of Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) and as a Professor of Strategy and Innovation. He was instrumental in developing and growing CKGSB’s executive education program to become a premier leader in China. Additionally, Dr. Liao held tenured professorships at the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology and visiting professorship positions at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Peking University, and China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). He was among the early contributors to the field of entrepreneurship and was actively involved in the Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (PSED) and had published numerous research papers across the fields of strategy and entrepreneurship.

He also served on the boards of several companies, including Farfetch, Qihoo 360, China Merchant Real Estate, China Unicom, and Yonghui, Bairong. Dr. Liao is frequently invited to advise leading Chinese companies and MNCs on building innovative organizations and designing strategic initiatives for sustainable growth. He is also a frequent speaker at industry events and is regularly quoted in business publications worldwide.