6 Chinese CEOs You Should Know About
Ma Huateng
CEO of Tencent
Age: 45
From: Chaoyang, China
Net worth: 39.6 billion USD
About: Chinese internet entrepreneur who is the founder, president, chief executive officer and executive board member of Tencent. Also one of China's richest men, and one of the wealthiest people in Asia, with an estimated net worth of US$39.6 billion. Tencent is probably best known as the owners of WeChat, Weibo and QQ.
Wang Jianlin
CEO of Dalian Wanda Group
Age: 63
From: Cangxi County, Sichuan province, China
Net worth: 30.1 billion USD
About: You’d have to be completely sheltered from Chinese affairs to not have heard the name Wanda somewhere. Chinese business magnate, investor, and philanthropist Wang Jianlin is the man behind the brand. Dalian Wanda Group is currently China's largest real estate development company, not to mention the world's largest movie theater operator. Wang himself even owns 20% of the Spanish football club Atlético Madrid. His current net worth is speculated to be upwards of 30 billion US.
Wang Wei
CEO of S. F. Holding
Age: 46
From: Shanghai, China
Net worth: 26.2 billion USD
About: Wang Wei is the legendary figure behind S. F. Holding, often referred to as the "Fedex of China" Wang was born in Shanghai in 1971, but moved with his parents to Hong Kong shortly afterwards. In 1993, at age 22, Wang decided to partner with five friends to start Shunfeng (SF) Express. His dad gave him an initial RMB 100,000 loan, and the rest is history. Perhaps the headline of a recent Forbes article sums it up best: ‘From six men and a van to 400,000 staff and a fleet of 35 aircraft.’
Robin Li
CEO of Baidu
Age: 48
From: Yangquan, China
Net worth: 18.9 billion USD
About: Robin Li or Li Yanhong is a Chinese Internet entrepreneur, co-founder of the search engine Baidu, and one of the richest people in China, with a net worth of US$18.5 billion as of October 2017
Lei Jun
CEO of Xiaomi
Age: 47
From: Xiantao, Hubei
Net worth: 6.8 billion USD
About: While he might not be the richest CEO on the list, it might help to know the man behind the brand that’s gunning for as much of Apple’s market share as possible. Xiaomi was founded back in April of 2010 by Lei Jun. The company has grown enormously manufacturing smartphones, mobile apps, and other consumer electronics.
Zhang Xin
CEO of SOHO China
Age: 52
From: Beijing, China
Net worth: 3.7 billion USD
About: Sadly, the list of China’s top CEO’s doesn’t include very many women. Zhang Xin is on that list though, and is quite an inspiration in the realm of women business leaders. Today she’s a Chinese real estate developer with a net worth of around 3.7 billion USD (that’s 800 million dollars more than Oprah is worth) but she certainly didn’t start out that way. As a young girl her family struggled, Zhang even worked in small factories for five years in order to save money for an education abroad. She’s currently the CEO of SOHO China, the largest prime office real-estate developer in the country.
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