Chinese hot pot restaurant chain Little Sheep has announced that its chief operating officer, Yang Yaoqiang, has resigned from the post of executive director and COO for personal reasons.

After his resignation, which is effective from December 31, 2009, Yang, will continue to act as a consultant to Little Sheep for three months.

Having worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Yum, Yang's former posts include being the financial director of Pizza Hut Indonesia and the executive president for KFC Hong Kong. He was invited by Little Sheep's Taiwanese investor to be an independent director of the restaurant in 2006. In 2007, Yang became one of the executives of Little Sheep and he led the company's successful listing in Hong Kong.

Under his leadership, Little Sheep acquired Yum as its second largest shareholders and the ten-year-old company has become one of the leading hot pot chain brands in China.