(Yicai Global) July 27 -- A former vice president of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding has reportedly joined Open Source China, the country's largest open source technology community, as chief strategy officer.

Hu Chenjie will be responsible for Shenzhen-based OS China's strategic planning, open source culture, investment, and financing activities, tech information media 36Kr reported today.

Hu left Alibaba in June after working there for nearly seven years, during which time he served as head of Alibaba Cloud Computing's new retail business, leading the teams that service clients such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Mengniu Dairy, according to 36Kr. Before Alibaba, Hu was chief information officer of China Southern Airlines.

With expertise and influence in the digital field, Hu will help mid-sized and large companies and government agencies adopt open source technology, 36Kr noted.

Founded in 2008, OS China completed a CNY775 million (USD109 million) Series B+ financing round in June, led by private equity fund FutureX Capital. Several science and technology innovation funds under the Shanghai branch of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission also participated in the fundraiser.

Leading Chinese tech firms such as Huawei Technologies, Baidu, and Lenovo Group, are among OS China's shareholders.

Gitee, the code hosting platform owned by OS China, has served 10 million developers, 260,000 businesses, and more than 2,000 colleges and universities so far, 36Kr pointed out.

Editor: Futura Costaglione