Fan Hongwei | |
---|---|
范红卫 | |
Born | February 1967 (age 57)[1][2] |
Nationality | Chinese |
Occupation | CEO of Hengli Petrochemical |
Spouse | Chen Jianhua |
Fan Hongwei (simplified Chinese: 范红卫; traditional Chinese: 范紅衛; pinyin: Fàn Hóngwèi) is a Chinese entrepreneur and billionaire who is the chair and CEO of the chemical fiber company Hengli Petrochemical (恒力石化) and vice chair of its holding company Hengli Group (恒力集团).[1][3][4][5] She was the fourth richest woman in China in 2019.[6]
Fan was born in February 1967 in Jiangsu Province, China.[1][3] She attended Nanjing Normal University.[7]
Fan started her career as an accountant.[3]
In 1994, Fan and her husband Chen Jianhua (陈建华) took out a 3 million RMB loan to buy Wujiang Chemical Fibre Textile Factory (吴江化纤织造厂), a failing textile factory in Wujiang, Suzhou.[3][8][9] Fan took over the factory as general manager, and she and Chen restructured the company and grew it from a factory with 27 employees into the largest fiber producer in China and one of the largest weaving companies in the world.[3][9][10][11]
The company is now known as Hengli Group, and its main unit is Hengli Petrochemical.[9] According to the company, Hengli Petrochemical became publicly traded through a backdoor listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2016.[9] In 2019, Hengli Group earned more than 500 billion RMB in revenue.[4] Its activities include refining petroleum to produce polyester, manufacturing chemical fibers, and real estate.[4][9][8] It mainly serves the apparel industry,[3] but also produces chips and filaments for packaging, electronics, and pharmaceuticals.[9] It has factories in Nantong, Suqian, and Suzhou.[12]
Fan owns a 45% stake in Hengli Petrochemical.[9] In 2020, Forbes estimated her and her family's net worth at US$6 billion.[13] As of 2021, her net worth is estimated at US$23 billion.[3]
In 2020 she was included on Forbes's list of the 50 top CEOs in China[14] and on Fortune's list of the 50 most influential business leaders in China.[15] The same year, she was ranked sixth on Hurun's list of the world's richest self-made women, with an estimated net worth of 53 billion RMB.[16]
In 2021, Forbes listed her as one of China's 20 top businesswomen.[5]
China Daily has listed her as one of the ten richest women in China three times: she was ranked fifth in 2018,[17] fourth in 2019,[6] and seventh in 2020.[18]
Fan's husband Chen Jianhua (陈建华) is also a billionaire. He is the chair and director of Hengli Group.[3][19] Their daughter Chen Yiting (陈逸婷), born in 1993, is a director of Tongli Lake Travel (同里旅游), a subsidiary of Hengli Group.[12][20]