Xiao served as president at Chinalco from 2004 to February 2009, after starting work there in 2002, soon after Chinalco's inception. He left his position to Xiong Weiping after being appointed to the State Council, China's cabinet, as deputy secretary general.  During his tenure, Chinalco grew to over 50 subsidiaries and expanded overseas to Mongolia, India, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Guinea, Peru, Cayman Islands, Australia, and Hong Kong.  Xiao has a doctorate in engineering from China's Central South University.

 (Xiao Yaqing is already introduced on the Caijing web-site so some of this information was from http://english.caijing.com.cn/2009-03-03/110111021.html)