Private equity firm KKR officially announced today that it had appointed Paul Yang, current President, and CEO of China Development Financial Corp., as its new Head of Greater China starting next year.

 "Paul Yang brings 20 years of investment experience to KKR. He is well versed in private equity, venture capital, corporate and commercial banking, and he has a proven ability to effect M&A and lead a multimillion-dollar enterprise throughout Greater China," Joseph Bae, managing partner of KKR Asia, said.

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The veteran Asian finance executive will take the place of David Liu, who is due to leave KKR at the end of this year to start his company.

According to the Street Insider, the announcement followed after KKR recently revealed its plan to expand its Asia-Pacific leadership team and add senior investment talent across China, Korea, and Singapore.

"As we head into our next decade of investing in China, we plan to continue to expand our scope of investments to include more mid-cap buyouts, cross-border deals and opportunities related to the domestic consolidation there, as well as in continuing to participate in growth-oriented investments," Bae said.

Yang gained an early experience at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s where he managed to secure ties with big Chinese executives including those at Alibaba Group Holding, The Wall Street Journal reported.

As the CEO of China Development Financial, he oversaw over $20 billion of loan and investment assets including a private equity operation that brought the majority of its capital into Chinese companies. Aside from supervising significant investments, the 48-year-old Yang has also led a team of 7,000 people across its operations in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Taipei, Shanghai, Seoul, and Singapore.

TagsKKR, Head of Greater China, Paul Yang, KKR Asia