Chinese Internet search engine Baidu.com (BIDU) has appointed Jennifer Li as the company's new chief financial officer, effective March 31, 2008.

The company's previous CFO, Shawn Wang, died unexpectedly in December 2007.

"We are thrilled to welcome Jennifer Li to our senior management team at Baidu," said Robin Li, Baidu's chairman and chief executive officer, in a prepared statement. "Jennifer is an experienced financial leader who brings over 13 years of treasury, corporate finance and financial analysis experience. She has worked in the manufacturing and financial service industries and has a proven track record of leading finance functions. We look forward to drawing upon Jennifer's vast strategic and financial expertise as we continue to lead China's growing Internet search market."

Li joins Baidu from GMAC, where she served as controller of GMAC's North American Operations. In that role, she led a staff of 200 in the US and Canada and was primarily responsible for financial accounting and reporting, business planning and forecasting, performance analysis and strategic development. Prior to that, Li was chief financial officer of General Motors China where she was responsible for overseeing finance functions of GM's wholly owned and joint venture businesses. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of British Columbia in Canada and a Bachelor of Arts from Tsinghua University in Beijing.