(Yicai Global) Jan. 3 -- Zhang Ling is returning to JPMorgan Chase after a three-year stint as chief operating officer at BGI Genomics, a leading Chinese genome-sequencing company.

The 45-year-old will head up JPMorgan's healthcare and technology investment banking group in China, the New York-based company said in a statement yesterday, confirming a Bloomberg report from late November. Zhang will be based in Hong Kong.

BGI announced Zhang's departure on Dec. 28, saying he would leave for personal reasons and would not retain any position at the Shenzhen-based company. His tenure was due to last until June 2021, five years and eight months after he took on the role in October 2015, which was less than a year after he joined JPMorgan as managing director of its Asia Pacific securities arm.

Zhang helped BGI Group, founded in 1999, go public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in July 2017 and facilitated several international mergers and acquisitions, according to Chief Executive Yin Ye.

Yin began trying to recruit Zhang when his company was looking to buy American counterpart Complete Genomics, he added, saying they built a strong trust in each other and Zhang's experience in the capital market and medical sector was beneficial to BGI's global expansion.

Shares of BGI Genomics [SHE:300676] closed 1 percent lower today at CNY60.37 (USD8.78) each, after earlier falling as much as 2.3 percent. The benchmark Shenzhen Component Index was off 0.8 percent.

Editor: James Boynton