Twitter's China MD quits

HONG KONG - Kathy Chen, Twitter's managing director for Greater China, has left her position, according to a series of tweets she posted on New Year's Eve.

She wrote that it was the right time for her to leave the company since the Twitter APAC team has been working directly with Chinese advertisers. "We have grown our Greater China advertiser base nearly 400 percent over the past two years and we thank all of them for their support," she said.

Twitter connects Chinese advertisers to a global audience although it is blocked in mainland China. Chen added that the Hong Kong office would remain open for the time being.

5/12 We have fully transitioned our Chinese ad sales & support activities to our APAC HQ. All Chinese ad queries go to Alan Lan (@bluealan).

— Kathy Chen (@kathychen2016) December 31, 2016

Chen joined Twitter in April last year from Microsoft. Her departure is part of a high-profile Twitter exodus including Shailesh Rao, former VP for APAC, Latin America and emerging markets; Rishi Jaitly, former VP for media in Asia-Pacific; and Parminder Singh, former MD for India, Southeast Asia and MENA.