JD Group announced that Shen Yuanqing, former Microsoft Asia Pacific technology chairman, has formally joined JD as president of its cloud business unit.

In his new role, Shen will be responsible for JD's cloud computing businesses and report to Liu Qiangdong, chairman and chief executive officer of JD.

Shen joined Microsoft in 1993 and he previously worked as Microsoft Asia Pacific technology chairman, chief operating officer of Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group, and general manager of Microsoft China cloud computing and enterprise division. During his service at Microsoft, Shen also worked as director of many technology companies listed in the U.S., China, and Hong Kong. Prior to joining Microsoft, Shen worked for IDT in California.

Shen graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara with a Master's degree of computer science.

Commenting on the joining of Shen, Liu said that they believe Shen will help JD achieve rapid development in cloud computing businesses and promote JD's cloud to the next step to become an output platform for various abilities of JD Group.