Top talent recruited for North Bund development
Zheng Ke, former general manager of a property firm under Vanke who has three master's degrees from universities both home and abroad, has been recruited as deputy general manager of the North Bund Group.
The North Bund Group has recruited a deputy general manager and seven professionals through a global recruitment with an annual salary of up to 1.5 million yuan (US$232,200).
Zheng Ke, former general manager of a property firm under Vanke who has three master's degrees from Shanghai's Tongji University as well as the Harvard and Stanford in the United States, has been recruited as the deputy general manager to oversee planning and projects on the Huangpu River waterfront in Hongkou District.
Zheng, 44, who once took charge of many key local projects such as the World Expo 2010 site in Shanghai, was recruited among some 430 candidates, including 91 from overseas.
“I was mostly attracted by the central global position of the North Bund,” said Zheng. “I’d like to use my experience and knowledge to contribute to its development and left some landmark works of mine,” he said.
The group launched the recruitment campaign in July 2020, marking the first time a state-owned enterprise in Hongkou has sought candidates from around the world. The practice aims to develop the North Bund region with a global vision, according to the Hongkou government.
The deputy general manager will assist the general manager in urban renewal planning, project development and management over a three-year period.
The successful candidate should drive regional development as well as the shipping and finance sectors, according to the online global recruitment notice which was released globally.
The group has received a total of 432 applications. An expert panel selected 50 among them to take part in an online exam. Fourteen candidates were picked up, said Zhang Shun, deputy Party secretary of the group.
Several rounds of interviews were hosted among the candidates and the judge panel led by Zhang Wei, vice director of Hongkou, decided to recruit Zheng.
“We’ve found the most suitable talent to support the development of the North Bund,” Zhang Shun said.
Other newly recruited professionals of the North Bund Group
Apart from Zheng, the group also recruited seven professionals for engineering and operation supervision through global recruitments. They include Chen Zhiyi, the newly recruited operation supervisor of the group, who gains two master's degrees of the Jiao Tong University and University of Edinburgh.
“I always feel regret to be unable to take part in the development on the Lujiazui area in Pudong, but I feel lucky now to join in the constructions of the North Bund,” Chen said.
The group has received a total of 3,500 applications for the posts. The recruited professionals have graduated from prestigious universities such as Peking, Tsinghua, Fudan and Jiao Tong with overseas studies experiences, Zhang said.
They are young and once worked for leading architecture and real estate firms, he added.
Yao Yi, 27, a graduate of the University of Melbourne, is the youngest among the newly recruited professionals. She is now assistant planner of the culture and tourism center of the group.
“The profound culture and history of the North Bund will be fully exploited during the development,” Yao said.
The group was established in 2017 to take charge of the redevelopment projects in the riverside region.
Along with the Lujiazui financial hub on the east bank of the river across from the Bund, the North Bund forms downtown Shanghai’s “golden triangle.” Riverside regions have already been transformed with greenery and paths.
The new-look North Bund will include a central business district with office buildings and commercial facilities. The riverside region, covering about 4 square kilometers, will be on a par with the Lingang Special Area and the Pudong New Area in the east.
It will become a "new engine" for Shanghai's future development with the tallest building in Puxi as well as well-preserved history and culture, according to the district government.
About 8.4 million square meters of new construction space have been planned for the waterfront, equivalent to the total amount of urban space in Lujiazui and on both sides of Century Avenue in Pudong.
These include dozens of office buildings to house about 100 headquarters of multinational firms, international organizations and functional institutes, according to the Hongkou government.
The North Bund waterfront along the Huangpu River
