Midea Group has recently appointed Gao Huandong, former vice president, deputy general counsel (global) and general counsel for China at Lenovo Group, as its general counsel.
Gao told China Business Law Journal: “As the global general counsel of a China-rooted Fortune Global 500 company, I hope to leverage AI skills and tools to gradually build a world-class legal and compliance team and system amid a complex and rapidly evolving geopolitical environment, in order to better support Midea Group’s B2C core business, B2B strategic transformation and global expansion strategy.”
Gao brings more than 20 years of in?house legal experience across industries including logistics, retail, hospitality and consumer electronics.
He began his legal career at Ericsson China, serving as legal counsel from 2003 to 2005. He subsequently held senior legal roles, including head of legal for DHL Express China; senior director of legal and corporate affairs at The Home Depot in China; vice president for Greater China and deputy general counsel (global) at InterContinental Hotels; and senior vice president and general counsel at Yihaodian.
From 2017 to 2020, he served as senior director of growth for real estate and M&A within Walmart’s global compliance department, before joining Lenovo Group.
In addition to his corporate legal work, Gao serves as an arbitrator with CIETAC, the Beijing Arbitration Commission, the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration and the Shanghai International Arbitration Centre.
He is also an antitrust expert appointed by the Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation, the capital’s market regulator.
Gao has been recognised multiple times in China Business Law Journal’s In-house Counsel Awards.
