Chinese PC maker Lenovo, which continued to outpace the competition in the latest quarter, has rewarded CEO Yang Yuanqing with a second title: chairman.

On Wednesday, the company, which has what it calls an executive headquarters in Morrisville, announced that Yang has taken on the additional role of chairman of the board in the wake of the resignation of Chairman Liu Chuanzhi, who founded the business in 1984. Liu, who was named "honorary chairman" and a senior adviser to the company, is turning his attention to Legend Holdings, which is Lenovo's largest shareholder.

Yang, 46, previously was chairman from 2005 to 2009, when he relinquished the position to Liu as part of a management shuffle that had Yang replace William Amelio as CEO. Amelio resigned at a time when the company's market share was eroding, which necessitated a restructuring that eliminated about 11 percent of the company's global workforce.

The company turned its fortunes around under the leadership of the Yang/Liu team. On Tuesday, Lenovo announced that it posted a 35 percent jump in revenue and an 88 percent jump in profit in the fiscal second quarter that ended in September. The company's growth has outpaced the industry for 10 straight quarters, and for eight quarters in a row it has been the fastest-growing among the largest PC makers.

Lenovo is one of the Triangle's largest technology employers, and its local workforce has been expanding. It has added about 350 workers in Morrisville since 2009, boosting the local workforce total to about 1,900 people.

Lenovo also announced in May that it would create 300 jobs by moving its customer-support operations to the Triangle next year. About 50 of those workers will be Lenovo employees; the remainder will work for Affiliated Computer Services, which Lenovo has hired to handle customer inquiries and technical support.

In the latest quarter, Lenovo leapfrogged over Dell to become the world's No. 2 computer maker behind Hewlett Packard.

Yang said during a conference call that he would follow in the footsteps of Liu.

Energetic sales force

Yang, who lives in the Triangle and maintains an office in Morrisville, previously served as CEO from 2001 to 2005. He joined the company as a sales representative in 1989.

Peter Hortensius, who as president of the product group heads Lenovo's global PC business, said in an interview that Yang is "passionate about innovation in our products, and passionate about helping our (sales force) sell these products. The reason why we are where we are is because of Yuanqing."

On Wednesday, Lenovo reported net income of $143.9 million for its latest quarter, up from $76.6 million a year ago and exceeding the projections of analysts polled by Bloomberg News.

"It really demonstrates that this balanced attack plan that we have to grow and be profitable at the same time is really working," Hortensius said.

Revenue for the quarter totaled $7.8 billion, up from $5.8 billion a year ago.

In the U.S. market, Lenovo rose a spot to No. 5 with a 6.8 percent market share in the third quarter. Its U.S. shipments rose 22 percent, compared to a flat market for the industry as a whole, according to market research firm IDC.

Lenovo's strength in the U.S. market is its sales to corporate customers, which is a legacy of its 2005 acquisition of IBM's PC business. But Hortensius said sales of notebooks and desktop PCs to consumers rose 78 percent and 70 percent, respectively.