Contract genomics organisation WuXi NextCODE has appointed John Gu as chief digital officer, leading data onboarding for the company's growing China platform. Gu, who joins the company from digital innovation consultancy Silver Sand Technologies, was formerly chief information officer for Baidu, the leading internet service provider and search engine in China, and held successive senior technology positions at Alcatel-Lucent in Europe and the US.

As the CIO of Baidu, Gu defined the enterprise IT strategy for one of the world's largest search engines and the leading cloud service provider in China. In the dozen years prior, ultimately as the group CIO of Alcatel-Lucent, he led global IT functions, including IT transformation, SW development, enterprise cloud services and data management. He also served as a management consultant at Booz Allen and PwC.

Gu holds a BS in computer science and electrical engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, an MS in computer science from Loyola University, and an MBA from the University of Chicago.