Quick answer: Temu (the shopping app) doesn't have its own separately-named CEO. It operates as a subsidiary of PDD Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PDD), which has been run by co-CEOs Chen Lei and Zhao Jiazhen since April 2023. Founder Colin Huang (Huang Zheng) stepped down from all formal executive titles years ago but remains the controlling shareholder with roughly a 25% stake, and still shapes company strategy informally.
Why you'll find wildly contradictory "CEO" names for Temu
If you've searched this already, you've likely seen at least three or four different, confidently-stated names claimed as "Temu's CEO." Here's what's actually going on:
1. Genuine confusion with an unrelated company that also happens to be called "TEMU." There is a completely separate company — an online job board for blue-collar workers in India/Indonesia — that is also named "TEMU," with its own actual CEO, Maral Dipodiputro. Several business-database sites conflate this small, unrelated company with the massive Chinese-owned shopping app because they share an identical name. These are not the same company in any way.
2. Fabricated or AI-generated biography content. Several low-quality sites present detailed, confident-sounding bios for a "David Xueling Li" or "David Zhang" as Temu's founder and CEO, including invented details about Stanford, personal net worth figures, and even art collections. These names do not match any actual, verifiable Temu or PDD Holdings executive. This is a clear example of AI-generated or lightly-rewritten content producing plausible-sounding but fabricated biographical claims — treat any site making these specific claims as unreliable.
3. A TikTok meme. "Liam Gittens" as Temu's CEO is a viral joke/meme format on TikTok, not a real claim anyone should treat as fact.
The actual, verifiable leadership structure
| Role | Who Holds It |
|---|---|
| Founder | Colin Huang (Huang Zheng) — stepped down as CEO in 2020, resigned as chairman in 2021 |
| Co-CEO, PDD Holdings | Chen Lei (also written Lei Chen) |
| Co-CEO, PDD Holdings | Zhao Jiazhen |
| Controlling shareholder | Colin Huang, ~25% stake through dual-class share structure |
Temu itself, launched in September 2022, doesn't have a distinct, publicly named CEO separate from PDD Holdings' leadership — it's operated as a subsidiary rather than an independently-run company with its own C-suite.
Why Colin Huang still matters despite no formal title
Even without an executive title, Huang's roughly 25% ownership stake — held through a dual-class share structure that gives him outsized voting control relative to his economic stake — makes him PDD Holdings' single most influential person. Forbes estimated his net worth at approximately $30 billion as of July 2026. He's publicly described as having stepped back to focus on personal interests and food science research, but his influence on company strategy and culture is widely reported as still significant.
Why PDD Holdings' structure matters for understanding Temu specifically
PDD Holdings is a Chinese-founded, U.S.-listed (NASDAQ: PDD) e-commerce conglomerate that also owns Pinduoduo, the massive Chinese domestic social-commerce platform Temu's business model is modeled after. PDD uses a variable interest entity (VIE) structure, meaning U.S. shareholders technically hold shares in a Cayman Islands holding company rather than direct ownership of the underlying Chinese operating entities — a common structure for Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges, and one worth understanding if you're researching PDD as an investment, separate from the CEO question itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Colin Huang the CEO of Temu?
No, not currently and not in any formal sense since 2020 for PDD Holdings broadly, and Temu has never had its own separately named CEO distinct from PDD Holdings' leadership.
Why do so many "Temu founder net worth" articles have different names and numbers?
This is a strong signal of low-quality, likely AI-generated or content-farm-produced articles competing for search traffic on a popular topic; cross-check any specific name or figure against Wikipedia, major financial outlets (Motley Fool, Reuters, Bloomberg), or PDD Holdings' own investor relations disclosures before trusting it.
Is the "Temu" job board company related to the Temu shopping app?
No, they are entirely separate companies that happen to share the same name; the job board is a much smaller company with its own unrelated CEO and has no connection to PDD Holdings or the shopping platform most people mean when searching "Temu."
Does PDD Holdings disclose executive compensation and leadership details publicly?
Yes, as a NASDAQ-listed company, PDD Holdings is required to disclose leadership and governance details in its SEC filings, which remain the most reliable source for verifying any specific claim about its executive structure.
Why this specific search term attracts so much low-quality content
"Who is the CEO of X" is a search pattern that content farms specifically target, since it's a common, high-volume query with a seemingly simple factual answer that's easy to generate filler content around. When the real answer is genuinely more complicated (as it is here, since Temu doesn't have its own distinct CEO), that complexity creates an opening for lower-quality sites to simply invent a clean, simple-sounding answer rather than accurately explaining the more nuanced corporate structure. This is worth keeping in mind whenever you search a "who is the CEO of [company]" question for a company with a genuinely layered ownership or subsidiary structure — the cleanest, most confident-sounding answer isn't always the most accurate one.
Bottom line
There is no single person holding the title "CEO of Temu" specifically. The honest, verifiable answer involves PDD Holdings' co-CEOs Chen Lei and Zhao Jiazhen running the parent company, and founder Colin Huang remaining the controlling shareholder without a formal executive title. Any source giving you a single, different, confidently-stated name — especially one like "David Xueling Li" or "Liam Gittens" that doesn't appear in Temu's or PDD's own official disclosures — should be treated with real skepticism.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Temu
- The Motley Fool, "Who Owns Temu? Largest Shareholders & More"
- RevenueMemo, "Who owns Temu? Ownership structure explained (2026)"
- The Business Journal, "Who Owns Temu? The Billion-Dollar Parent Company Behind the Shopping App"
- PDD Holdings public investor disclosures