Ren Zhengfei is a Chinese businessman. He is the founder and president of
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., headquartered in Shenzhen, China, and an
ex-People's Liberation Army officer. Hurun Report listed Ren as the 556th
richest person in China in 2013 with private assets of approximately $590
million USD. Biography
Ren's grandfather was from Jiangsu province and was a master chef who was
an expert in curing ham in neighbouring Zhejiang province. His father, Ren
Moxun, failed to complete university studies when his grandfather died a year
prior to his graduation. During the Japanese occupation, his
father migrated south to Guangzhou to work in a Nationalist government arms
factory as an accounts clerk. After 1949, his father was appointed as the
president of No.1 Middle School of Duyun where he met Ren Zhengfei's mother; the
elder Ren became a member of the Communist Party in 1958. 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 the Chongqing University in the 1960s, and then joined the People's
Liberation Army research institute to work as a military technologist in the
PLA's Information Technology research unit. During his time in the PLA, Ren
did not hold military rank. He was excluded from joining the Communist
Party of China for most of his career in the military, due to his parents' social
background and their ties to the Kuomintang. During this time, Ren was
responsible for a number of technology achievements that were recognized at
various levels. For this reason, Ren was selected as a delegate from PLA to
attend the National Science Conference in 1978. In 1982, Ren retired from the
army due to a large PLA workforce reduction which impacted 500,000 active
duty personnel. In 1983, after becoming a civilian Ren moved to Shenzhen and
worked in the electronics business. = Huawei =
In 1987, Ren founded Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd with 21,000 yuan. At the time,
Huawei mostly sold telephone exchange equipment from Hong Kong.
He now serves as its CEO. The company had an annual revenue of $34 billion USD
with 10% going into research & development, and over 144,000 employees
as of January 2013. Time Magazine included Ren Zhengfei in
its list of 100 most influential people of 2005.
Ren holds 1.42% of the shares of Huawei, valued at US$450 million in 2010. Huawei
is essentially independent of Ren because it is held by most of its
employees, but the ownership structure remains opaque.
= Political ties = Ren retired from the People's Liberation
Army as a civilian employee of a rank equivalent to a major in 1982. He joined
the Communist Party of China in 1978. As a representative of private
entrepreneurs, he was elected 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. Ren's ex-wife was the daughter of a Communist politician who
served at one time as deputy Governor of Sichuan Province.
His ties with the Chinese military and Communist Party are being cited as a
security concern in not allowing Huawei to expand in India. These fears are
shared by other countries around the world. In the United States it led to
the collapse of Huawei's efforts to buy 3Com and forced SoftBank to greatly
sever ties in order to have its takeover of Sprint Nextel acquire U.S.
national-security clearance while in the United Kingdom the Intelligence and
Security Committee has recommended the removal of Huawei's equipment due to
spying fears. References
^ "China Rich List 2013", hurun.net ^ "Ren Zhengfei". Businessweek.
Retrieved 15 April 2013. ^ "Ren Zhengfei, founder and chairman,
Huawei". Telecoms.com. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
^ "Ren Zhengfei Modeled After Mao". Matthew Forney. April 18, 2005.
^ a b Analysis - Who really owns Huawei lains-about-indias-security-concerns.htm
^ "Huawei Loser in SoftBank-Sprint Deal Over Alleged Spying". Bloomberg. 30 May
2013. Retrieved 4 July 2013. ^ "Like U.S. lawmakers, Brits raise
spying fears over Huawei gear". c net. 6 June 2013. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
External links Ren's commemorate article of his parents
and his upbringing