Board of Directors

Mr. Will Wei Cheng is our founder and has served as chairman of our board of directors since January 2013 and our chief executive officer since February 2015. Mr. Cheng founded Beijing Xiaoju Science and Technology Co., Ltd. in 2012 and, shortly thereafter, launched the DiDi Dache app to provide taxi hailing services. Since then, Mr. Cheng has led us to become the world’s leading mobility technology platform, having overseen our acquisition of Kuaidi and Uber China, diversification of our service offerings and expansion around the globe. Prior to founding us, Mr. Cheng worked at Alibaba from 2005 to 2011, most recently as deputy general manager of Alipay, with responsibility for Alipay’s business-to-consumer functions, and before that, in a number of sales-related positions, including as regional manager at Alibaba. Mr. Cheng has been featured on Fortune China’s 50 Most Influential Business Leaders list for three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019. In 2017, Mr. Cheng was selected as a Global Game Changer by Forbes. In 2016, Mr. Cheng was named Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year and Forbes Asia’s Businessman of the Year. Mr. Cheng has received honors and awards such as “National Outstanding Individual in Poverty Alleviation”, “National Outstanding Individual of Private Economy Fighting against COVID-19”, “Beijing Youth ‘May 4th’ Medal” and “Beijing Outstanding Young Talent.” Mr. Cheng received a bachelor’s degree in administration management from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology in July 2004.

Ms. Jean Qing Liu is one of our co-founders and an executive director of our company. Ms. Liu has been serving as our director and president since December 2014. Ms. Liu also leads the DiDi Women’s Network, the first career development program for women in the Chinese internet sector. Prior to joining us in July 2014, Ms. Liu worked at Goldman Sachs (Asia) from August 2002 to June 2014. Ms. Liu was featured on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women International List from 2016 to 2020, and was named on Time’s 100 list of the World's Most Influential People in 2017. Ms. Liu was also selected for the list of “40 Overseas Returnees in 40 Years of China’ Reform and Opening-up” in December 2018 and the list of “China’s 70 Overseas Returnees” in December 2019. Ms. Liu received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Peking University and a master’s degree in computer science from Harvard University.

Ms. Fengxia Liang has served as our director since April 2022. Ms. Liang currently serves as Associate General Counsel of Tencent Holdings Limited, an internet company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (stock code: 00700). Ms. Liang joined Tencent in March 2008. Prior to joining Tencent, she worked at Deloitte as Senior Legal Counsel, and prior to that she practiced law at an Asian law firm specializing in M&A and commercial transactions. Ms. Liang received her LLM degree from University of London and LLB degree from Fudan University.

Mr. Yi Zhang has served as our director since December 2021. Mr. Zhang joined Alibaba Group in August 2014. Mr. Zhang has been serving as senior legal director of Alibaba Group and is currently the general counsel of Alibaba Local Service Company. Prior to joining Alibaba Group, Mr. Zhang practiced law with several international law firms, such as Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett. Mr. Zhang is a licensed attorney of the State of New York. Mr. Zhang received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Renmin University of China in July 2000, a master of arts from Columbia University in May 2002, and a juris doctor degree from Cornell Law School in May 2005.

Mr. Zhihui Yang has served as our independent director since April 28, 2023. Mr. Yang currently serves as the executive president and chief financial officer of New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc. (NYSE: EDU; HKEX: 9901). He held multiple positions since he joined New Oriental in April 2006, including vice president of finance, deputy director of president office and senior financial manager. He has served as New Oriental’s chief financial officer since April 2015 and executive president since January 2021. Prior to joining New Oriental, Mr. Yang served as the financial director of Beijing Hua De Xin Investment Co., Ltd., and worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers as a senior auditor. Mr. Yang received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Guanghua School of Management of Peking University.

Mr. Gaofei Wang has served as our independent director since June 29, 2021. Mr. Wang has served as a director and the Chief Executive Officer of Weibo Corporation since August 2020 and February 2014, respectively. Since Weibo’s inception, Mr. Wang has had various product and business development roles at Weibo and was promoted to general manager in December 2012. Mr. Wang joined SINA Corporation in August 2000 and worked in the product development department until early 2004 when he transferred to the mobile division of SINA, or SINA Mobile. He served as general manager of SINA Mobile from November 2006 to November 2012. Mr. Wang received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Peking University and an EMBA degree from the Guanghua School of Management of Peking University.

Mr. Yusuo Wang has served as our independent director since June 29, 2021. Mr. Wang has more than 30 years of experience in the energy sector. He is the founder and chairman of the ENN Group, a conglomerate focused on vertically-integrated natural gas, clean energy and life-health offerings, with interests in China and overseas. Among the ENN Group’s publicly-listed companies, Mr. Wang serves as the chairman of ENN Natural Gas Co. Ltd., a company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (600803.SH), and the chairman of ENN Energy Holdings Limited, a company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (2688.HK). Mr. Wang received a doctoral degree in management from the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics.