Recently, Bloomage Biotech, which is undergoing a profound transformation, officially disclosed the list of members of its new board of directors.
According to the announcement, in the list of newly elected non-independent directors, aside from Zhao Yan, Guo Jiajun, and Li Yizheng who were re-elected, the other three are all “new faces,” indicating significant changes.
Turning back the clock to March this year, Zhao Yan delivered an internal speech titled “Strict Organizational Governance, Return to the Business Frontline, and Reviving the Entrepreneurial Spirit.” The public widely interpreted this as Bloomage Biotech officially sounding the horn of transformation. Notably, Zhao Yan’s speech was delivered exactly 100 days before the release of the new board list.
So, following the strong signal of reform from the top leader, what changes have actually taken place within Bloomage Biotech’s management team?
Significant Drop in Board Members with Functional Skincare and Ingredient Backgrounds
This much-anticipated board list from Bloomage Biotech has finally been released—though later than expected.
In April, Bloomage Biotech announced that preparations for the re-election of the new board of directors and board of supervisors were still underway. To ensure continuity and stability, the re-election—originally scheduled for that month—would be postponed.
Given the backdrop of major corporate transformation, this delay further fueled speculation and curiosity about internal changes at Bloomage Biotech.
It wasn’t until a month and a half later that the company officially released the Announcement on the Completion of Board Re-election and Appointment of Senior Management (hereafter referred to as the “Re-election Announcement”), revealing the new board of directors.
According to the Re-election Announcement, Zhao Yan, Guo Jiajun, Li Yizheng, Wang Hui, Yu Jing, and Chen Yuxin were elected as non-independent directors of the third board of directors at the 2024 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting. Yao Yang, Chen Daliang, and Xu Wenming were appointed as independent directors.
Zhao Yan remains the Chairwoman and General Manager, while Guo Jiajun and Li Yizheng retained their positions. Wang Hui, Yu Jing, and Chen Yuxin are new to the board.
Among the newly appointed non-independent directors, Wang Hui is considered an “external hire.” She previously served as CFO at several companies, including AVIC Leadtone Aviation Technology Co., Ltd., and joined Bloomage Biotech in September 2023. She currently holds the roles of Deputy General Manager and Chief Financial Officer, with less than two years at the company.
Yu Jing and Chen Yuxin both have long-standing experience with HuaXi International Group, having joined in 2011 and 2019, respectively. Both have held financial positions: Chen is currently the CFO of HuaXi International Investment Group Co., Ltd., while Yu is the General Manager of Beijing HuaXi International Hotel Management Co., Ltd.
According to the announcement, the three outgoing non-independent directors are Guo Xueping, Fan Yuan, and Zou Songyan. Guo Xueping, a board member, deputy general manager, and core technical personnel, retired upon reaching the legal retirement age. Fan Yuan and Zou Songyan previously served as Vice Presidents of Business Operations.
Notably, Fan Yuan has held several important roles, including Senior Product Manager of the Medical Aesthetics Division, CEO Assistant, General Manager of the BM Skincare Division, and General Manager of Bloomage Biotech’s Consumer Health Division. She is regarded as a key driver behind the company’s functional skincare business, making her departure from the board particularly surprising.
One clear trend in the new board structure is the absence of members with a background in functional skincare or personal care ingredients, such as Fan Yuan and Zou Songyan. Instead, the “new faces” all have long-standing experience in finance, with two of them being external hires from HuaXi International Group. This marks a sharp contrast from the previous board, which included several internal promotions, suggesting Zhao Yan may be using top-level personnel restructuring to reinforce her control and oversight of Bloomage Biotech.
CHAILEEDO also noted that Bloomage Biotech has unveiled its new senior management team. Zhao Yan continues as Chairwoman and General Manager, with Guo Jiajun, Li Yizheng, Wang Hui, and Xiang Maogong serving as Deputy General Managers.
In a March announcement, Bloomage Biotech stated that it was undertaking a management restructuring, including a reduction in the number of deputy general managers not required by law, to streamline its organizational hierarchy. This was reflected in the new announcement: the number of deputy GMs has been cut from seven in 2022 to just four. Liu Aihua, Xu Guixin, Luan Yizheng, Guo Xueping, and others have stepped down from the role earlier this year. Two post-1980s executives, Xiang Maogong and Wang Hui, have now assumed the positions.
It’s also worth noting that Xiang Maogong is the only deputy general manager not to join the new board of directors. He joined Bloomage Biotech in March 2021 and was appointed Deputy General Manager in March 2025. He also serves as Executive Director of the Global Supply Chain Platform and is considered a core technical personnel.
Bloomage Biotech Sounds the Horn of Counterattack
According to its 2024 annual report, Bloomage Biotech recorded full-year revenue of RMB 5.371 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 11.61%. Net profit attributable to shareholders fell by 70.59% to RMB 174 million. A key factor behind this decline was the Skin Science Innovation & Transformation business (formerly known as the Personal Health Consumer Products division), which brought in RMB 2.569 billion in revenue—down 31.62% year-on-year.
In the first quarter of this year, the downward trend continued. Bloomage Biotech posted revenue of RMB 1.078 billion, down 20.77% year-on-year, while net profit attributable to shareholders fell by 58.13% to RMB 102 million. The company attributed this decline primarily to falling revenue from the Skin Science Innovation & Transformation business, though it did not disclose specific figures for this segment.
Facing continued losses in this key business segment, Bloomage Biotech declared 2023 its “Year One of Transformation” and launched sweeping reforms, including business process restructuring, organizational and talent transformation, and overhauls to its KPI and performance systems.
The reshuffling of the board—particularly the exclusion of directors with backgrounds in functional skincare and personal care ingredients—may signal a strategic reshaping of the business. Zhao Yan has also publicly stated she has taken direct management of this segment.
CHAILEEDO noted that in its Q1 2025 financial report, Bloomage Biotech offered one of its most detailed assessments yet of the challenges facing its Skin Science Innovation & Transformation business.
According to the report, this segment—still accounting for a major share of revenue—is undergoing an adjustment phase. Chairwoman and General Manager Zhao Yan has begun personally managing the segment as of the end of the reporting period and has made key assessments.
Bloomage Biotech argues that the fundamental reason for the decline in this business is not intensified market competition. Rather, it is due to a departure from the foundation on which the segment initially succeeded: the company’s global leadership in hyaluronic acid and glycobiology, and its core scientific strengths in brand development.
Furthermore, the company emphasized that the segment’s performance drop was not due to missing any “market trend windows,” but instead stemmed from deeper issues in talent and organizational structure.
Importantly, Bloomage Biotech also refuted market speculation that hyaluronic acid is becoming “obsolete.”
“Although the market seeks new concepts, the competitive push behind these concepts has created strong profit-driven motives for spreading the narrative that hyaluronic acid and glycobiology are ‘outdated.’ But such claims of obsolescence or replacement do not align with the direction of cutting-edge life sciences,” the company stated.
Based on these assessments, the company introduced a series of reform measures in the financial report:
Executive Downward Integration: Zhao Yan has begun personally overseeing the Brand & Communications Management Center, BM Skincare, and the Biohyalux brand. Her focus is on safeguarding the company’s brand equity and applying cutting-edge global omics research to inform technology and brand positioning for BM Skincare and Biohyalux.
In parallel, Bloomage Biotech has halted inefficient promotional activities based on discounting logic, and instead is rebuilding its brand content system rooted in scientific strength and AI-assisted insights.
“Although these measures have led to a temporary drop in sales revenue, they lay the groundwork for healthy financial growth and offer a path for adjustment for Runbaiyan and Quadi,” the report noted.
Business Unit Renaming and Team Restructuring: The former “Personal Health Consumer Products” division has been renamed the Skin Science Innovation & Transformation business. Drawing from successful restructuring experiences in its medical aesthetics unit and leveraging the company’s strengths, Bloomage Biotech has completely revamped its consumer products management and operations teams—aiming to build a younger, science-driven, and professionally competent leadership team.
Institutionalizing Scientific Strategy: The company has established a Frontier Insight and Scientific Content Research Center to integrate foundational technological innovations across its bioactive materials, pharmaceuticals & medical devices, and skin science businesses. This center will support the scientific communication of its brands. Additionally, a new Competitive Intelligence Department has been formed to track and respond to any misinformation or marketing activities that conflict with scientific consensus or research trends.
Beyond internal changes, CHAILEEDO observed that since the start of 2025, Bloomage Biotech has ramped up its public discourse. From publishing multiple articles on life sciences and hyaluronic acid to publicly defending experts like “Dr. Big Mouth” and engaging in debates surrounding recombinant collagen, the company is clearly fighting an escalating battle for narrative and cognitive realignment.
Chinese Beauty Industry Faces Test of Organizational Capability
CHAILEEDO has observed that the internal restructuring at Bloomage Biotech has sparked broader industry discussion around the importance of organizational capability within Chinese cosmetics companies: How can beauty enterprises develop an organizational structure that is replicable and capable of sustained innovation?
One industry insider commented, “As the cosmetics industry moves into an era of high-quality development, companies can no longer afford to have glaring weaknesses. Weak organizational capability is often the key reason many beauty companies plateau after reaching their peak.”
Fang Yuyou, Board Advisor at Proya, has also emphasized the importance of organizational strength when discussing business success: “Organizational flattening is crucial. Only with flexible mechanisms and structures can communication flow freely. Once there’s layer upon layer of reporting, the company could be headed for disaster.”
Overall, due to differences in development stages and business scale, China’s cosmetics sector still has relatively limited experience and exploration in building organizational capability.
A well-known beauty brand founder with a background in the tech industry told CHAILEEDO:
“Many of China’s leading tech companies place great emphasis on cultivating a sustainable edge—this includes leadership in organizational capability. The reason we see relatively few leading domestic beauty groups, and why some companies have stagnated, is largely due to a lack of organizational strength.”
“Organizational capability includes the ability to replicate and scale both talent and processes. At its core, it’s about continuously reproducing the paths to past successes and enabling a constant stream of new talent. Tech companies like Huawei have deeply studied this and developed a mature methodology. That’s how they manage to seize every new opportunity or trend as it emerges,” the founder explained.
A representative from a Guangdong-based beauty brand added, “Organizational capability is closely tied to the size of the company. Chinese beauty brands have only just begun to reach the milestone of RMB 10 billion in annual revenue. Everything is still in a phase of learning and exploration. I’m confident in the learning ability of domestic brands.”
CHAILEEDO has also found that as market competition intensifies, more and more brands are becoming aware of their deficiencies in organizational and operational capability. As a result, they are beginning to focus inward, aiming for long-term growth through internal development.
One founder of a rising skincare brand told CHAILEEDO, “After weathering the past two years, we’ve come to truly understand the importance of solid foundational operations. To build a business that can endure, you can’t afford to have significant weaknesses.”
Sustainable success is the shared aspiration of all businesses. Today, in a Chinese cosmetics market brimming with standout companies, true competition goes beyond product and branding—it lies in whether a company possesses the innate ability to evolve. The real secret to long-term success may well be maintaining comprehensive leadership across organizational capability, product strength, and brand power.
