The chairman of Deutsche Bank China will join the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China as a vice president - the first senior management position at a major Chinese state-owned bank to be filled externally by an executive from a foreign bank.

Lee Zhang, who is also the German bank's head of global banking for Asia Pacific, is expected to leave his post at the end of May after a decade with the bank to join ICBC, the world's largest lender by market value, the Chinese bank said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.

Zhang's appointment is subject to the approval of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

"We wish Lee well in his new role," said Josef Ackermann, chief executive officer and chairman of Deutsche Bank. "China is and will remain a global priority market for Deutsche Bank."

Zhang is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to China's legislature. He is also a financial adviser to Beijing and the governor of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Zhang joined Deutsche Bank from Goldman Sachs Group in February 2001 as head of its China corporate finance business. He rose to become the bank's China chairman in September 2003 and Asia co-head of global banking in 2004.