Lenovo appoints Wall Street veteran and ‘China friend’ John Thornton as non-executive director
- Thornton is a prominent advocate of US-Sino economic collaboration, and sits on the board of various tech and finance firms
- Lenovo is looking to revamp its business after profits missed estimates for a second straight quarter
Lenovo Group, the largest PC maker in the world, has announced the appointment of American businessman and “China friend” John Thornton as an independent non-executive director and a member of the company’s Nomination and Governance Committee.
Formerly the co-president and director of Goldman Sachs until 2003, Thornton has acted as a prominent advocate of economic cooperation between the US and China.
He is currently executive chairman of the mining company Barrick Gold Corporation and non-executive chairman of global asset manager PineBridge Investments.
He sits in high positions on a laundry list of other, often China-connected, firms and organisations.
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In a press release on Friday, Lenovo’s chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing said that Thornton would bring the company a “wealth of global leadership, insight, and perspective” from his experience in diverse fields, such as global partnerships, risk management and government and regulatory affairs.
Lenovo is looking to revamp its business after its profits missed estimates for a second straight quarter on Thursday, amid a slump in demand in the global PC market. Sales in China were weak amid domestic economic headwinds.
While its core business is personal computers, the company said it will invest US$1 billion into artificial intelligence (AI) over the next three years.
Lenovo has already announced new AI server products tailored for the Chinese markets, which it believes will meet the demands of local companies developing ChatGPT-like AI services and other AI applications.
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AI is also a business venture Thornton has found himself tied to, acting as lead director of SparkCognition, an industrial AI company.
According to Lenovo, Thornton also holds directorships at Ford Motor Company, capital market company AltC Acquisition, and software company Divergent Technologies.
Meanwhile, Thornton’s business dealings in China date back to at least 1997, when Goldman Sachs advised China Telecom with its US$4 billion-plus initial public offering.
This was one of the earliest examples of a major Chinese state-owned enterprise partially listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
After leaving Goldman Sachs, Thornton also took on numerous roles connected to US-China relations, such as International Advisory Council member with the China Investment Corporation, co-chairman of the American Asia Society, and chairman of the Asian investment firm Silk Road Finance Corporation.
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In 2006, as chair of the Brookings Institute, he established a China-focused centre that provides recommendations to decision-makers in China and the West. He is also a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, directing its “Global Leadership Program”.
In 2008, the Chinese government awarded Thornton an annual “Friendship Award”, which commends foreign experts for their contributions to the country.
In 2021, the businessman made a discreet trip to China to meet top officials, including then Vice-Premier Han Zheng, despite rising geopolitical tensions and tight Covid restrictions that limited travel to the country at the time.
