Half a year after U.S.-based Dun & Bradstreet Corporation's Chinese subsidiary was fined CNY1 million and four of its China executives received jail sentences for improperly collecting data, the company has added a director with some China experience.

D&B last week announced that Thomas J. Manning was appointed to D&B's board of directors on June 12, 2013. Manning is the former CEO of Cerberus Asia Operations & Advisory Limited, a subsidiary of Cerberus Capital Management, a global private equity firm. Manning has over thirty years of experience in consulting and technology services with a large portion of his career spent living in Hong Kong and working in China and Asia.

Dun & Bradstreet claims to be the world's leading source of commercial information and insight on businesses. D&B's global commercial database contains more than 225 million business records.

In late December 2012, Shanghai's Zhabei district court sentenced at least four former employees of Shanghai Roadway D&B Marketing Services Company to sentences of one to two years in jail and fines of up to CNY20,000. The company in March 2012 came under scrutiny by China Central Television for allegedly collecting data in China illegally. D&B was subsequently caught up in alleged violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

D&B apparently closed and liquidated Shanghai Roadway, leaving hundreds of employees to look for new work, and leaving many competitors happy for the new influx of clients.