In 1998, legendary Chinese entrepreneur Liu Quingdong founded the company that he has become synonymous with. This company, known as JD.com, experienced tremendous growth over its evolution as a company. What began as a store in the traditional brick and mortar style has evolved into the leading e-commerce retailer in the Chinese market. Under the guidance of Liu Quingdong, JD.com has also become the leader in innovation in the Chinese retail sector and one of the foremost leaders in this area globally. The humble business that Richard Liu began in 1998 is now one of the members of the prestigious Fortune Global 500. Beyond being China's biggest retail operation, JD is also the company that brings in the largest amount of online revenue in the market as well. Commitment to innovation has been a huge factor in this massive growth and success as well as the JD commitment to impressive levels of customer service that Richard Liu demands.

Richard was born in the town of Suquian which is located in the Jiangsu Province. His family was hard-working but of modest means. Richard excelled in his education and desired to attend college. In the end, he was able to do so with some critical support from the members of his village that wanted to see he provided with the opportunity to attend college. Richard attended China's Renmin University where he undertook a course of study in the Sociology major. After completing this course, Richard Liu went on to earn his EMBA Degree at the Business School at China Europe International.

The youth of Richard Liu was a time where China was experiencing some major changes. These changes included a massive restructuring of the economy that led to a lot of new opportunities for entrepreneurship. Richard was impressed by these changes and he was also inspired to make his mark. He founded a brick and mortar store, that eventually became JD.com, in 1998. It was in 2003 that an event occurred that would cause Richard to shift to focus at JD in a manner that would set the future course for the firm. This event was the SARS epidemic that terrorized China. This event had the effect of shutting down storefronts across the entirety of the country and causing businesses to grind to a halt. The citizens of China also stay indoors which added to the effect of business slowing to a crawl. Richard saw an opportunity and started to shift his business model to the online sphere. This was a formative change that helped to push JD.com to the next level. Since that time, Richard has fully committed to operating in the online sphere and has guided JD to a status of being one of the world's preeminent innovators in online sales and supply chains.

This impressive innovation campaign that JD has embarked on under the leadership of Liu Quingdong has had to effect of giving the firm the biggest and most sophisticated infrastructure network for the fulfilment of orders that any e-commerce firm has globally. The system of infrastructure parks that are run by JD is some of the most technological and automated facilities in the world of order fulfilment. One of the biggest projects that Richard and his team of supply chain experts are working on now is to continue to expand so that the JD supply chain becomes fully connected to the entire world. The goal is to make it possible to provide any product and brand to any consumer that wants it on a global basis. This is consistent with the kind of innovative work that Richard has demonstrated throughout his career.