About

Richard Pu, deputy general counsel and general manager, oversees around 50 lawyers and one non-lawyer in the compliance and transactions department (CTD) at Tencent. The department is divided into four teams, overseeing the company’s corporate and M&A, portfolio management, complex commercial deals, and global legal and regulatory matters. Pu describes his team as having a ‘flat structure that fosters a culture of professionalism, openness, cooperation and collegiality’. Sheila Fengxia Liang, associate general counsel of Tencent, and vice general manager of CTD, is in charge of technology transactions group in which she has coached the M&A and technology transaction teams into what Pu describes as ‘the most sophisticated and skilled teams in the industry’. Also, Yan Li, associate general counsel of Tencent, and vice general manager of CTD, is in charge of M&A and asset management teams and has overseen numerous M&A deals for Tencent worldwide. Additionally, four very experienced directors manage CTD’s four units: the M&A legal team is led by Jed Qingjie Li, the asset management legal team by Erin Li Tian, the commercial and technology transactions legal team by Chiachi Li and the corporate legal team by Timothy Tin Tai Ma. A nominator identified that the team ‘deal with the most amazing transactions and [has] helped small start-ups getting their first few series financing, and grow together with the Internet giant Tencent. Tencent is 20 years old now, and has supported more than 20,000 entrepreneurs in and outside China. It is leading the industry’s development of cutting-edge technology’. The past two years have seen Tencent expand into new practice areas and share its legal resources with the broader community. The department provides its portfolio companies with “Tencent value-added legal services” enabled via an online platform with interactive consulting services and templates of professional reports and legal documents. Pu’s leadership has been celebrated by a nominator for ‘his instrumental role in laying the sustainable and long-term foundation for Tencent’s impressive growth whilst delivering compliant solutions to protect the company from reputational risks as it ventures into new markets where the regulatory environments for innovation are often opaque’.