Jack Gao Departs Wanda Group, Legendary Entertainment

Jack Gao, senior vice president of Dalian Wanda Group and interim CEO of Legendary Entertainment, has departed the Chinese conglomerate, Variety has confirmed.

The move comes after Wanda has been rebuffed by the Chinese government for its aggressive overseas expansion moves. Gao had been instrumental in many of those moves — some successful, others that were aborted.

Zeng Maojun, president of Wanda Film, will take the reins as Legendary’s interim leader. Founder Thomas Tull departed the studio in January, leaving it without top leadership. Mary Parent, Legendary’s head of production, is said to be staying with the Burbank-based studio.

Dalian Wanda, which has its roots in property development but has expanded massively into entertainment, and latterly sports, is controlled by billionaire Wang Jianlin, and operated through a web of listed and privately owned companies.

Wang recently made it clear that Wanda will in the near and medium term focus most of its energies on development within China, rather than abroad, as a result of the government actions against his empire. In that context, Gao had already seen his role reduced.

Formerly a senior executive at News Corp. and Microsoft, Gao often described his role within Wanda as situated at the crossroads between international and the creative industries.

Gao joined Wanda in 2015, serving as Wanda’s CEO of international investments and operations. In this role, he advised Wang during aggressive international expansion in 2015 and 2016. Towards the end of 2016, however, Beijing tightened restrictions on Chinese capital outflows and corporate indebtedness, leading to a decrease in the progression of Wanda’s international endeavors.

According to sources, this increase in Chinese regulation prompted Gao’s departure from the firm, which was reportedly of his own accord. With the new regulations in place, Chinese investment overseas has been significantly hampered.

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