Background
Gu Chujun was born in 1959 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
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Chujun Gu
Edit Profile雏军 顾
Education
In 1981 Gu Chujun received his bachelor degree in engineering and then went to Tianjin University where he obtained his masters degree in 1984.
Career
In the 1980s he became interested in chlorofluorocarbon-free refrigerants and conducted some active research in thermodynamics and refrigeration engineering. After he invented an environmentally-friendly chlorofluorocarbon-free refrigerant, he patented the technology in 1990, and formed Greencool, based in Shunde, Guangdong Province. This invention became the benchmark for the refrigerant companies of China. Gu is responsible for funding and starting Greencool Technologies, as well as developing all corporate strategies. According to Caijing magazine, in 2001 Greencool Enterprises Development was the largest shareholder (20.64 percent) in Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings, then China’s largest refrigerator maker. In 2003 Gu Chujun was named the most noteworthy Chinese entrepreneur’ by the Asia Times.
Gu managed various other companies under the name of Greencool. In addition to the Kelon Group, the list also includes Hefei Meiling, Xiangyang Automobile and Yangzhou Motor Coach. As an appliance company, Kelon became one the largest refrigerator companies in China in the 1990s, with assets valued at 6.6 billion RMB (US$814.8 million). The company also had yearly revenues of 4.38 billion yuan (US$540.7 million). However in 2005, Kelon stopped all production following the arrest of company vice president Liu Congmeng and former auditor Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.
An investigation found that top executives had embezzled money. The scandal was linked to Gu Chujun who was arrested later that year, and all bank accounts for the company and top executives were frozen. The trigger for the investigation was that Kelon Group had a loss of 60 million yuan (US$7.5 million) in the 2004 annual report, and in the following year that loss had increased substantially to US$473 million. Gu was charged with inflating corporate profits and embezzlement. Because of his arrest and alleged economic fraud, Gu has been permanently banned from involvement in the secu- rities business and serving on the board or in top management of any company in China. The 46-year-old former executive was expecting sentence for his criminal charges as of 2007.
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Born
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Nationality
China -
Ethnicity
Career
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1999