Baidu (9888) has appointed Liu Xiaodan as a new independent director and chair of the audit committee, succeeding Brent Callinicos.

The change took effect on February 23.

Liu is currently the managing partner of Firstlight Capital, a private equity firm in China.

Callinicos, who joined Baidu’s board in 2015, held the director role and chairmanship of the audit committee from October 2015 and April 2016, respectively. He resigned for personal reasons, according to the tech giant.