Fan Hongwei
Fan Hongwei is a Chinese entrepreneur and billionaire who is the chair and CEO of the chemical fiber company Hengli Petrochemical and vice chair of its holding company Hengli Group. She was the fourth richest woman in China in 2019.
Early life and education
Fan was born in February 1967 in Jiangsu Province, China. She attended Nanjing Normal University.Career
Fan started her career as an accountant.In 1994, Fan and her husband Chen Jianhua took out a 3 million RMB loan to buy Wujiang Chemical Fibre Textile Factory, a failing textile factory in Wujiang, Suzhou. 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.
The company is now known as Hengli Group, and its main unit is Hengli Petrochemical. According to the company, Hengli Petrochemical became publicly traded through a backdoor listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2016. In 2019, Hengli Group earned more than 500 billion RMB in revenue. Its activities include refining petroleum to produce polyester, manufacturing chemical fibers, and real estate. It mainly serves the apparel industry, but also produces chips and filaments for packaging, electronics, and pharmaceuticals. It has factories in Nantong, Suqian, and Suzhou.
Fan owns a 45% stake in Hengli Petrochemical. In 2020, Forbes estimated her and her family's net worth at US$6 billion. As of 2021, her net worth is estimated at US$23 billion.
Recognition
In 2020 she was included on Forbes list of the 50 top CEOs in China and on Fortune list of the 50 most influential business leaders in China. The same year, she was ranked sixth on Hurun list of the world's richest self-made women, with an estimated net worth of 53 billion RMB.In 2021, Forbes listed her as one of China's 20 top businesswomen.
China Daily has listed her as one of the ten richest women in China three times: she was ranked fifth in 2018, fourth in 2019, and seventh in 2020.
Personal life
Fan's husband Chen Jianhua is also a billionaire. He is the chair and director of Hengli Group. Their daughter Chen Yiting, born in 1993, is a director of Tongli Lake Travel, a subsidiary of Hengli Group.Fan lives in Suzhou.