Nita Ing (殷琪; born 17 March 1955, in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

) is the

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese-American president of

Continental Engineering Corporation Continental Engineering Corporation (CEC; ) is a large Taiwanese construction company. History The company was originally founded by Glyn T. H. Ing in 1941 as Wei Dah Corporation in Chungking, Sichuan. In 1945, the company was restructured to be ...

and the former chairman of the board of the

Taiwan High Speed Rail Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) is the high-speed railway of Taiwan consisting of one line that runs approximately along the west coast, from the capital Taipei to the southern city of Kaohsiung. With construction and operations managed by a pri ...

Corporation, the company which built a high-speed railway system from

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...

. A supporter of the

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majori ...

, she had been an advisor to the former President

Chen Shui-bian Chen Shui-bian (; born 12 October 1950) is a retired Taiwanese politician and lawyer who served as the president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2000 to 2008. Chen was the first president from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) whic ...

. Her career as a construction magnate took place largely within Taiwan's

, of which she has served as the chairman of the board.

Early life

Nita's hometown is

Wenzhou Wenzhou (pronounced ; Wenzhounese: Yuziou �y33–11 tɕiɤu33–32 ), historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People's Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east o ...

and comes from a

Wenzhounese Wenzhounese (), also known as Oujiang (), Tong Au () or Au Nyü (), is the language spoken in Wenzhou, the southern prefecture of Zhejiang, China. Nicknamed the "Devil's Language" () for its complexity and difficulty, it is the most divergent div ...

family. Her father,

businessman, Chi-Hou Ing, was the founder of

and paternal grandfather was the former deputy minister of

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Eco ...

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

in the early 20th century. Nita Ing was expelled from

Taipei American School Taipei American School (TAS; ; abbreviation TAS) is a non-profit private international school with an American-based curriculum located in Tianmu, Shilin District, Taipei, Taiwan. TAS serves students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. At th ...

for "rowdy behavior" and sent to a Massachusetts boarding school in the 1970's when she was a teenager. She then majored in economics at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

(UCLA), but was expelled from the University from setting up a fire protesting women inequality. She was briefly married to Paul Gittleson in 1979 in Los Angeles, but divorced a few years later. Her children were from a subsequent relationship. She currently lives in Taipei, Taiwan with her two daughters, who both attend Taipei American School.

Career

After graduating, Ing started a career at Continental Engineering Corporation in August 1977, eventually rising to become president of the firm. From 1998 until 2009, she was the chairperson of the

Corporation. In 2010, she was appointed as the chairperson of Continental Holdings Corporation.

References

External links

Taiwan High Speed Rail official website

CEC Timeline
1955 births Living people American people of Chinese descent Businesspeople from Taipei Taiwanese emigrants to the United States Tibetan Buddhists from the United States Tibetan Buddhists from Taiwan 21st-century American women American Buddhists {{Taiwan-business-bio-stub