Nine Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business alumni have been listed in the Forbes’ China Top 100 Businesswomen of 2022.
Nine Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business alumni have been listed in the Forbes’ China Top 100 Businesswomen of 2022. This is the eighth list that Forbes have released featuring women business leaders. This year’s list not only focused on the profits and revenues created by female entrepreneurs but also places importance on the role they play in business development. Out of those listed this year, 60% have a master’s degree (including MBAs), 25% studied abroad, and the market value of all of their companies added together exceeds RMB 11 trillion. Compared with last year, 35 new faces made the list and almost half of them come from the pharmaceuticals, technology and retail sectors. The average age of the women leaders this year is 51 years old.
Whilst 6 CKGSB alumni were included on the list in 2021, the list this year features three new entries: Miranda Qu, Lu Yiwen and Deng Jieru. This highlights the strides CKGSB have made in producing alumni who are at the forefront of their fields. Below we take a look at how the 9 CKGSB alumni named on the Forbes list have shaped the industries they are in.
Wu Yajun – Co-founder and CEO of LongFor Properties
From a factory technician to a journalist, to co-founder of the real estate company LongFor Properties in 1993, Wu Yajun is one of China’s richest women. Wu Yajun built Longfor Properties into a real-estate empire which grew with China’s expanding economy and infrastructure push in the 90s and 2000s. Launched in Chongqing, LongFor now has properties in over 100 cities across China and covers a development area of 130 million square meters. Wu Jajun is a graduate of CKGSB’s “CKGSB CEO program” and sits at number 5 on the list.
Trudy Dai – President of Industrial and Community E-commerce at Alibaba
Trudy Dai is one of the co-founders of Alibaba Group in 1999. In January 2022, Trudy was appointed President of Alibaba’s newly established China Digital Commerce. This includes Greater Taobao (Taobao, Tmall and Alimama), the B2C Retail Tmall Group, as well as Taocaicai and 1688.com. Trudy Dai is a graduate of CKGSB’s Business Scholars Program and is number 14 on the list.
Miranda Qu – Founder of Xiaohongshu
Miranda Qu is founder of Xiaohongshu, a community e-commerce platform which has become one of the world’s largest lifestyle sharing platforms, with over 300 million monthly users. Initially created as an online shopping guide for brands outside China, Miranda has developed Xiaohongshu into a highly developed e-commerce platform, which is based on user-generated content to promote brands particularly in the fashion and cosmetics sectors. Xiaohongshu also allows companies to leverage influencers to market their brands and increase revenue. Miranda Qu is a graduate of CKGSB’s Chuang Community Program and sits at number 46 on the list.
Sun Dan – Global Senior Vice President of Seagate Technology and President of Seagate Technology for China
Seagate Technology is the world’s leading supplier of hard disk and storage solutions. Sundan leads the company’s marketing, business development and technical support in China, and has headed up their transition from primarily being a hard disk manufacturer to a data storage manufacturer. She has over 20 years of experience in the field, working at IBM since 1994, before joining Seagate in 2013. She has driven Seagate’s growth to achieve quarterly growth of USD $1 billion in China in 2021, and also led Seagate to form partnerships with Tencent Cloud and Inspur. Sun Dan is a graduate of both the CKGSB’s EMBA and Business Scholars Program, and is placed at number 53 on the list.
Lu Yiwen – Co-founder, Board Director and Deputy General Manager of DR Co.Ltd
Co-founding DR with her husband in 2010, Lu Yiwen has developed the company into a unicorn enterprise in the jewelry industry with its main brand: its DR customized engagement ring. With marketing campaigns such as “one life, one true love” and “each customer can only purchase one engagement ring from DR,” Lu Yiwen has led DR to yearly revenues of nearly RMB 2 billion. Lu Yiwen is a graduate of CKGSB’s Business Scholars Program and is positioned at number 61 on the list.
Zhang Yan- General Manager of Wuhan Guide Infrared Ltd
Zhang Yan has led Wuhan Guide Infrared to be China’s leading player in the infrared camera and thermal imaging systems industry. She is a graduate of CKGSB’s EMBA program and sits at number 66 on the list.
Zhang Ning – Founder and Chairman of Red Avenue New Materials Group
Zhang Ning is Founder and Chairman of one of China’s leading chemical manufacturers, Red Avenue New Materials Group. After establishing the company as a rubber additive trade agency in 1999, she realized the potential for rubber materials. Zhang led Red Avenue to develop two research centers, and later to become a leading manufacturer of rubber tires, electronic materials and biodegradable plastics, with a market capitalization of USD $21 billion. Zhang Ning is a graduate of CKGSB’s EMBA program and 69th on the list.
Deng Jieru – Chairman of Chengdu RML Technology
Since taking on the role of chairman of Chengdu RML Technology, Deng Jieru has developed the company into China’s leading researcher and manufacturer of millimeter-wave phased array microsystems. The technology is used in fields such as precision guidance, data link communications and radar detection. Deng is a graduate of CKGSB’s EMBA program and 73rd on the list.
Fu Fenfang, President and Board Chairwoman of Fujian Sunner Development
Fu Fenfang is President and Board Chairwoman of the poultry processing company Fujian Sunner Development. Since joining the company in 2003, she has been influential in extending the company’s supply chain, which now competes with KFC and MacDonald’s. In 2016, she also secured a deal with MacDonald’s to become the first Chinese company to supply them with poultry. Moreover, Fu has been instrumental in bringing significant solutions to food security during the pandemic by gaining approval to breed China’s fist domestic white-feathered broiler chickens. Fu is a graduate of CKGSB’s EMBA program and is number 76 on the list.
