Ren Zhengfei

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ren.

Ren Zhengfei (任正非 b. 1944 in Guizhou, China (贵州)) is the president of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd (华为技术有限公司), headquartered in Shenzhen, China. Forbes magazine listed Mr. Ren as the 190th richest person in China, with private assets of approximately $124 million USD^[1].

Biography

Ren's grandfather was from Jiangsu (江苏) province and was a masterchef who was an expert in curing ham in neighbouring Zhejiang province (浙江). His father (任摩逊) failed to complete university studies when his grandfather died a year prior to his graduation.

During the Japanese occupation, his father migrated to down south to Guangzhou(广州) to work in the KMT party's arms factory as an accounts clerk. After 1949, his father was appointed as the president of No.1 Middle School of Duyun (都匀一中) where he met Ren Zhengfei's mother. The eldest of seven children, his mother was a senior teacher at the No.1 Middle School of Duyun.

After completing secondary school, he attended Chongqing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, and then joined an army research institute to work as a military technologist. Due to China's discrimination against people of his parent's social background, he was excluded from joining communist party for most of his career in the military. During this time, Ren was responsible of a number of technology achievements that was recognized at various levels. For this reason, Ren was selected as a delegate from PLA to attend the National Science Conference in 1978. 1982, Ren was forced to leave the army due to a large round of PLA force reduction which impacted 500,000 active duty personnel. After becoming a civilian, Ren moved to Shenzhen and worked in electronics business.

Huawei Technologies Co.,Ltd.

In 1988, Ren founded Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, a company which specializes in the development, production, sales of telecom equipment, and is its CEO. The company had an annual revenue of $24 billion USD, and over 96,000 employees in 2008. Huawei is confident to have an annual revenue of $30 billion USD in 2009. Although its an economic recession year but Huawei is taking it as an opportunity.

Time Magazine included Ren Zhengfei in its list of 100 most influential people of 2005^[2].

Communist party ties

Ren Zhengfei is a former officer of the People's Liberation Army. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1978, and is member of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Among his other accomplishments, Ren is responsible for developing cooperative programs with businesses in China’s interior regions.

His ties with the Chinese military and Communist Party are being cited as a security concern in not allowing Huawei to expand in India.^[3] This follows similar objections raised by the United States which ultimately led to the collapse of Huawei's efforts to buy 3Com.

External links

• Ren's commemorate article of his parents and his upbringing (in Chinese)

References

1. ^ "The 400 Richest Chinese". Russell Flannery (Forbes Magazine). January 25, 2006. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/74/Name_9.html. 
2. ^ "Ren Zhengfei Modeled After Mao". Matthew Forney (Forbes Magazine). April 18, 2005. http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/subscriber/2005/time100/builders/100zhengfei.html. 
3. ^ http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/06/04/236301/huawei-complains-about-indias-security-concerns.htm