Wang Chuanfu (; born 1966) is a Chinese

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, and the founder, chairman and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

BYD Company BYD Co. Ltd. ("Build Your Dreams" Chinese: 比亚迪股份有限公司) is a publicly listed Chinese conglomerate manufacturing company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It was founded by Wang Chuanfu in February 1995.Wuwei County Wuwei () is a county-level city in the southeast of Anhui Province, China, under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Wuhu. Previously a county, Wuwei was upgraded to a county-level city in late 2019. It has population of 1,214,000 as ...

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

province to a family of poor farmers. While in high school he was cared for by his elder brother and sister because both of his parents had died. After high school he studied chemistry at the

Central South University Central South University (CSU; ) is a national public university in Changsha, Hunan, China. The university is sponsored by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, China Ministry of Education. It is a Chinese state Double Fir ...

, and went on to earn a master's degree in 1990 from the Beijing Non-Ferrous Research Institute.

Career

He spent several years as a government researcher, but in 1995 he entered the private sector and founded his own company,

BYD Company BYD Co. Ltd. ("Build Your Dreams" Chinese: 比亚迪股份有限公司) is a publicly listed Chinese conglomerate manufacturing company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It was founded by Wang Chuanfu in February 1995.Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

. Founded with his cousin

Lu Xiangyang Lu Xiangyang is a Chinese entrepreneur and a founder of the battery and auto maker BYD Company. Lu Xiangyang was born in Anhui. He started his career at the local branch of the People's Bank of China. At the beginning of the 1990s, he moved to ...

when he was 29 years old, BYD Company is currently the world's biggest

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

batteries manufacturer. In early 2009, he was reportedly worth US$3.4 billion, placing him 408th on Hurun Report's Global Rich List 2014 . In late 2009, his worth grew to $5.1 billion and was crowned China's richest man on the

Hurun Report Rupert Hoogewerf (born 1970 in Luxembourg), also known by his Chinese name Hu Run (), is the chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, a research, media and investments business, best known for its Hurun Rich List, a ranking of the wealthies ...

. This was due largely to a fivefold increase in his company's value after

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from ...

bought 225 million new shares of BYD in 2008. In November 2021, Forbes reported that Wang's wealth had increased to $23.5 billion, making him the 14th richest person in China, this was due to a twofold increase in BYD's share price over the previous year.

Personal life

He is married and lives in

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Chuanfu 1966 births Living people Chinese billionaires People from Wuhu Businesspeople from Anhui Chemists from Anhui Chinese chief executives in the automobile industry BYD Company people 21st-century Chinese businesspeople Chinese founders of automobile manufacturers Central South University alumni Automotive businesspeople