Volvo Cars · Hurun Most Successful University Alumni 2023

HURUN RESEARCH INSTITUTE RELEASES 

VOLVO CARS·HURUN MOST SUCCESSFUL UNIVERSITY ALUMNI 2023 

IN SEARCH OF THE ALUMNI THAT CREATED THE MOST HURUN CHINA RICH LISTERS

TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY AND ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY TOPPED THE LIST, EACH WITH 32 ALUMNI ON THE 2023 HURUN CHINA RICH LIST 

PEKING UNIVERSITY THIRD WITH 22 ALUMNI ON THE HURUN CHINA RICH LIST

SHANGHAI JIAOTONG UNIVERSITY SHOT UP TO 4TH, WITH 21 ALUMNI

WUHAN UNIVERSITY FIFTH WITH 17 ALUMNI

RENMIN UNIVERSITY OF CHINA AND SOUTH CHINA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY CAME IN 6TH WITH 16 ALUMNI EACH

ROUNDING OUT THE TOP 12 INCLUDE FUDAN UNIVERSITY, NANJING UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF CHINA, CENTRAL SOUTH UNIVERSITY AND XI 'AN JIAOTONG UNIVERSITY

OVERSEAS UNIVERSITIES WITH THE MOST HURUN CHINA RICH LISTERS WERE STANFORD UNIVERSITY WITH 14 ALUMNI, MIT WITH 11 AND UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RANKED WITH 8

MORE THAN 40% OF THE ENTREPRENEURS ON THE HURUN CHINA RICH LIST 2023 ARE FROM THE “UNIVERSITY OF LIFE”, IE DID NOT GO TO UNIVERSITY

❖The 2023 Hurun China Rich List Top 5, did they go to university, and if so, which university? ‘Bottled Water King’ Zhong Shanshan did not go to university; Pony Ma Huateng of Tencent graduated from Shenzhen University, which has 7 alumni on the list; Colin Huang Zheng of Pinduoduo graduated from Zhejiang University, which has 32 alumni on the list; ‘Battery King’ Robin Zeng Yuqun graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University, which has 21 alumni on the list; Zhang Yiming of ByteDance graduated from Nankai University, which has 6 alumni on the list.

❖Wu Yajun of Longfor Properties, the richest self-made woman in China, graduated from Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xian.

❖Among the 45 Chinese universities with 3 or more alumni on the 2023 Hurun China Rich List, Beijing has the most with 9, followed by Shanghai with 5, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Wuhan with 3 each. Among the 13 overseas universities that made our cut, the most are from the USA, with 9 universities, followed by 2 from the UK and 1 each from Canada and Singapore.

❖Entrepreneurs who studied abroad include: Alibaba's Joe Tsai, who received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Yale University; Zhang Xin of SOHO China has a bachelor's degree from Sussex University and a master's degree from Cambridge University; Shenzhou Cell's Xie Liangzhi has a PhD from MIT.

❖On the Hurun China Rich List 2023, 42% of entrepreneurs did not go to university, led by three of the Top 10: Zhong Shanshan, Li Ka-shing and He Xiangjian of Midea.

❖The average age of entrepreneurs who did not go to university was 62 years old, ie born in 1961. The average age of those graduating from university was 57, ie born in 1966.

(5 January 2024, Shanghai) Hurun Research Institute and Volvo Cars today jointly released the Volvo Cars · Hurun Most Successful University Alumni 2023. This is the third time that the Hurun Research Institute has released the Most Successful University Alumni.

Hurun Research Institute looked at the full-time undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral degrees held by entrepreneurs on the Hurun China Rich List 2023, excluding other degrees such as honorary degrees, EMBAs, part-time business school MBAs or short courses. 

A total of 58 universities, 45 Chinese and 13 overseas, have at least three alumni on the Hurun China Rich List 2023.

Like these intellectual entrepreneurs, the Volvo brand has always been known for the image of its owners. Since its establishment in 1927, safety has always been a steadfast core value of Volvo Cars for nearly 100 years. Today, the market shows increasingly strong demand for pure electric premium MPVs, the new EM90 is not only equipped with a new generation of advanced technology, but also aligns with Volvo Cars' core values.

In collaboration with the Hurun Research Institute, renowned for providing quality lists and surveys, Volvo Cars has jointly unveiled the Volvo Car · Hurun Most Successful University Alumni 2023. This initiative aims to offer enterprising entrepreneurs who have achieved success but continue to demand breakthroughs the premium choice of safe, environmentally friendly, low-profile premium cars. Volvo cars said that, as Volvo Cars continues to grow and fully transform into a pure electric vehicle company, it will contribute to creating a better, easier, and more enjoyable travel and lifestyle experience for consumers in the Chinese market.

Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, said “No matter how big an entrepreneur is today, their university alumni association is often their most treasured network. I am delighted to release the Volvo Cars · Hurun Most Successful University Alumni 2023 in association with Volvo Cars. I hope that our list will help Chinese parents, as well as alumni associations learn more about which university alumni went on to create the most wealth.”

“More than 40% of the entrepreneurs on the Hurun China Rich List 2023 are from the ‘University of Life’, ie did not go to university. This has perhaps as much to do with age as anything else.”

“I think the ultimate measure of a university's success is a record of its alumni who have gone on to become valuable members of society, such as scientists, educators, doctors, etc. Our list ranks universities based on the number of alumni who made the 2023 Hurun China Rich List.”

“I think many people underestimate the power of the domestic alumni associations.  I hear of so many Chinese entrepreneurs who are looking to send their children to university abroad, and yet most domestic alumni associations are much more active and have a much broader alumni network than many people think.” 

“For many people, going to college is not just a four-year learning opportunity, it will become a platform for a lifetime, especially from elite universities.”

“The average age of the entrepreneurs on the Hurun China Rich List is 59 years old. This means they graduated from university in 1987, started their business in 1993, aged 29, and made the Hurun China Rich list for the first time in 2011, aged 47. 55% of them continue to study after graduation.”

“Entrepreneurs in emerging industries, especially in biotech, AI and other related fields, have started their businesses slightly later in recent years, mainly because of the high technical content and the relatively high proportion of master's and PhDs.”

“According to the Hurun China Philanthropy List 2023, their preferred cause is education, especially to their alma mater.”

“Many of the founders of Hurun Unicorn enterprises, Hurun U35 and U40, started their business with friends from their university alumni.”

“Hurun is committed to promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Hurun’s ‘startup series’ has three main components. On the corporate level, it begins with the Hurun Cheetah Index, startups most likely to go unicorn within five years, moving onto the Hurun Gazelle Index, startups most likely to go unicorn within three years, and finishing with the Hurun Unicorn Index, startups already worth US$1 billion. On the individual level, we have the Hurun Under30s, Under35s and Under40s, for founders of businesses that are worth US$10 million, US$50 million and US$100 million.”

This is a brief English language summary of the original Chinese-language press release. For the full list and release, see www.hurun.net. 

Hurun Most Successful University Alumni 2023 – Universities in China

Hurun Most Successful University Alumni 2023 – Universities outside of China

About Volvo Cars

Volvo Cars was founded in Sweden in 1927. “Volvo” comes from the Latin for “rolling forward.” Today, Volvo products are sold in more than 100 countries and have become one of the world’s best-known and prestigious premium car brands. In 2021, Volvo Cars is listed on the NASDAQ Stockholm Exchange under the symbol “VOLCAR B”.

Volvo Cars aims to provide hassle-free mobility for all in a personalised, sustainable and safe way. To this end, Volvo Cars has set the goal of becoming a pure electric premium car company by 2030, and is committed to continuously reducing the carbon emissions of the whole life cycle of vehicles, and strives to become a global climate zero load benchmark enterprise by 2040.

Volvo Cars’ headquarters, product development, marketing and administrative functions are primarily located in Gothenburg, Sweden, with its Asia-Pacific headquartered in Shanghai, China. Volvo Cars has manufacturing facilities in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), South Carolina (USA) and Chengdu, Daqing and Taizhou (China). Volvo Cars also has R&D and design centers in Gothenburg, Camarillo (USA) and Shanghai (China). As of December 2022, Volvo Cars had approximately 43,200 full-time employees worldwide.

Volvo Cars’ full-year 2022 revenue reached 330.1 billion SEK with its operating profit standing at 22.3 billion SEK, both record highs. It sold 615,121 units worldwide.

About Hurun Inc. 

Promoting Entrepreneurship Through Lists and Research

Oxford, Shanghai, Mumbai 

Established in the UK in 1999, Hurun is a research, media and investments group, promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Widely regarded as an opinion-leader in the world of business, Hurun generated 8 billion views on the Hurun brand last year, mainly in China and India.

Best-known today for the Hurun Rich List series, telling the stories of the world’s successful entrepreneurs in China, India and the world, Hurun’s other key series is the Hurun Start-up series, ranking the world’s unicorns and future unicorns, as well as giving recognition to young start-up founders.

Hurun has grown to become the world’s largest researcher and list compiler of startups, ranking 4000 startups across the world through its annual Unicorns list (US$1bn+), and two future unicorn lists (Gazelles from US$500mn, and Cheetahs from US$300mn). 

For the young start-up founders, Hurun has created the Under30s, Under35s and Under40s awards, representing the cream of young entrepreneurs who have founded businesses with a social impact and worth around US$10mn, US$50mn and US$100mn respectively. 

Other lists include the Hurun Global Highschools List, ranking the world’s best independent highschools, the Hurun Philanthropy List, ranking the biggest philanthropists, the Hurun Art List, ranking the world’s most successful artists alive today, etc…

Hurun provides research reports co-branded with some of the world’s leading financial institutions, real estate developers and regional governments. 

Hurun hosts high-profile events across China and India, as well as London, Paris, New York, LA, Toronto, Sydney, Luxembourg, Istanbul, Dubai and Singapore.

For further information, see www.hurun.net. 

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