Jeffrey Kang, or Kang Jingwei (, born February 6, 1970), is a Chinese

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the

Shenzhen Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...

-based

Cogobuy Group Cogobuy Group is a Chinese enterprise service platform. Following a major business restructuring in 2019, the group merged chip sales service on Cogobuy.com into Comtech, and merged R&D and IoT product financing and corporate services, previous ...

, the largest corporate procurement

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

platform for IC components in China with worldwide sales and distribution.

Early and personal life

Kang was born in

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

on 6 February 1970. He has two children with his wife Nan Ji and resides with his family in Overseas Chinese Town (OCT),

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

. In July 1991 Kang received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from South China University of Technology in

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

, Guangdong. In 2006, Kang was ranked among the richest people in China by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'', with a net worth of

CN¥ The renminbi ( ; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB), also known as the Chinese yuan, is the official currency of the People's Republic of China. The renminbi is issued by the People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of Chin ...

17 billion. In 2015, he joined the ranks of ''

The World's Billionaires ''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking of people who are billionaires, i.e., they are considered to have a net worth of US$1 billion or more, by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March 1987. ...

'' defined in

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

terms by ''Forbes'' at age 45. Kang's total calculated executive compensation listed in his firm's annual accounts for 2014 was CN¥2,933,000 (c. US$500,000).

Business career

Kang started his career in China's

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

sector as a sales engineer in charge of the components business for Matsushita Electric Industrial now known as

Panasonic is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...

from 1992 to 1995. In 1995 he invested US$50,000 to start his own company called the Comtech Group, to act as a distribution channel for the sale of electronic components in China. In 2002, the Comtech Group went public and was listed on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

(

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

) as Viewtran (ticker: VIEW). In 2011, he established the first online platform for selling IC components in China, Cogobuy, which went public on the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...

in July 2014 with an annual turnover of CN¥84 billion in 2014.

Honors and awards

* 2015:

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

Entrepreneur Of The Year Award, China

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kang, Jeffrey 1970 births Living people Chinese computer businesspeople Businesspeople from Chongqing Businesspeople in information technology Chinese company founders 21st-century Chinese businesspeople