Because of the success of his Chinese development company Evergrande, chairman Hui Ka Yan’s personal net worth is estimated by Forbes to be $38.2 billion, making him the 26th richest person in the world. He remains the largest shareholder of the company with 74 per cent, meaning he is in charge of more than 800 projects in 280 Chinese cities according to Bloomberg. Born into relative poverty in China’s Henan province in the rural centre, he rose from the factory floor after being one of China’s first college students at the Wuhan University of Science and Technology in 1978. Quitting his job as steel plant manager after ten years, he moved to Shenzen’s special economic zone and founded Evergrande with only a handful of staff. A few years later, it had become one of the top ten developers in Guangzhou, starting with lower-priced properties in smaller markets. He has two children with wife Yang Huiying, who he met at the steel factory. Their eldest son Xu Zhijian serves as a Vice President at Evergrande. In addition to his interests in property and real estate, he has bought and then sold 50 per cent of his interest in Guangzhou Football Club to his fellow Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma of the Alibaba Group and has recently branched out into the areas of artificial intelligence and electric car manufacture. He has been quoted as saying he would like to take on Tesla as the world’s biggest maker of electric cars.
