Li Jinyuan (; born 1958) is a Chinese businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is the founder, chief executive, and chairman of Tiens Group, a direct seller of healthcare products. He was featured on Forbes' 2011 list of the world's billionaires as the 24th richest person in China at that time.

Early life and education

Li Jinyuan was born in

Cangzhou Cangzhou () is a prefecture-level city in eastern Hebei province, People's Republic of China. At the 2020 census, Cangzhou's built-up (''or metro'') area made of Yunhe, Xinhua districts and Cang County largely being conurbated had a populatio ...

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

Province, in 1958. He dropped out of school at the age of 14 and worked in an oilfield for two years before starting in business on his own account.Meet five billion dollar titans of China apart from Alibaba's Jack Ma.
''

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bus ...

'', 24 May 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2018. He has an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Nankai University Nankai University (NKU or Nankai; ) is a national public research university located in Tianjin, China. It is a prestigious Chinese state Class A Double First Class University approved by the central government of China, and a member of the fo ...

.Li Jinyuan.
''Forbes''. Retrieved 15 August 2018.

Career

Li Jinyuan during a product launch in India 2018

Li founded Tiens Group, a direct seller of healthcare products, in Tianjin in 1995. It was reported in 2015 that the company had 12,000 employees. He is now chairman and chief executive. In 2011, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' magazine estimated his wealth at $1.2B US, making him the 24th richest person in China at that time. He received press attention in 2015 when he took 6,400 of his employees on holiday to France at a cost of £24m. Li was pictured greeting his employees at the opening parade standing in a United States Army jeep. The event required the booking of 140 hotels in Paris, and 7,600 tickets on France's high-speed

TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...

trains to transport his staff to the French coast where over 4,000 rooms were required in hotels in Monaco and Cannes.Li Jinyuan: Chinese billionaire takes 6,400 Tiens Group staff on holiday at cost of £24m.
Ben Tufft. ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 10 May 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2018. The visit was described by the ''

International Business Times The ''International Business Times'' is an American online news publication that publishes five national editions in four languages. The publication, sometimes called ''IBTimes'' or ''IBT'', offers news, opinion and editorial commentary on busi ...

'' as an "expensive gesture" that demonstrated the "growing economic power of China".Chinese billionaire Li Jinyuan takes 6,400 staff on holiday to France.
Mark Piggott, ''

'', 9 May 2015. Retrieved 15 August 2018.

Philanthropy

According to ''Forbes'', Li has created a Tiens Beijing International Charitable Foundation with an endowment of approximately $100 million and also provided $100 million to start a private school in Tianjin known as the Tianshi College which in 2011 enrolled over 3,000 students. ''

'' reported in 2016 that Li had "contributed generously to flood and tsunami-relief efforts and the fight against the SARS virus".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Jinyuan 1958 births Living people Businesspeople from Hebei Chinese billionaires Chinese company founders Chinese philanthropists Nankai University alumni People from Cangzhou