Background
Ning Gaoning was born on November 9, 1958 Binzhou, Shandong, China.
高宁 宁
Ning Gaoning was born on November 9, 1958 Binzhou, Shandong, China.
A native of Shandong Province, Ning Gaoning holds a bachelors degree in economics from Shandong University and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.
After graduation in 1987, Ning joined Huarun and devoted 18 years of his career to the group. Based in Hong Kong, Huarun is a large, state-owned holding company designed to attract international capital to the Chinese market. Three years after joining the company, he was appointed a subsidiary director. Later he served as general manager of several different Huarun companies. In 1999, he was named as vice chairman and general manager of China Resources (Holding) Co. Ltd as well as serving as general manager of China Resources National Corp.
Since Ning took charge of Huarun in 1999, he has implemented two strategies, one was internal restructuring, and the other was enterprise mergers and acquisitions, with the aim of transforming the multi-billion dollar enterprise from commercial to industrial development. Intending to make the Huarun Group a competitive leader in each of its industries, Ning led the company in a series of mergers and acquisitions through effective use of powerful capital forces in the areas of real estate, beer, and other retail product industries.
In June 2006, Ning divided the large and overlapping Huarun Group into four business units: distribution, real estate, technology, and strategic investment. Another important move was to relocate Huarun’s business center from Hong Kong to the mainland, which attracted considerable attention within the Hong Kong financial market. Under Ning’s leadership, the Huarun Group integrated in many areas and focused on six key industries: retail, textile, food, beer, property, and garment distribution. In 2003, Huarun’s turnover reached HK$46.7 billion, of which more than 20 billion was attributed to the business in the mainland.
In 2004, Ning was appointed the chairman of COFCO, the largest food and oil import and export firm in China and a leading food manufacturer. Not familiar with COFCO, Ning took time to study its management, corporate culture, mission, and core values. He organized extensive training for high-level leaders and had face-to-face discussions on enterprise strategy with managers of each business unit. Based on his experience of making Huarun the industry leader in many areas, Ning decided to integrate COFCO’s jumbled business units into specialized and strategy-oriented groups. Eventually, 50 business units were divided into seven parts and 34 units, which are directly incorporated into the group. With a belief in harmony between nature and man, Ning also led COFCO into the new energy industry by launching an ethanol fuel project in the Guangxi Autonomous Region, the first such project in the nation.
In 2006, Ning launched a new logo for COFCO, composed of the sky, the earth, and the sun, to reflect its new corporate philosophy ‘Nature Shapes Us.’ Already famous for his work on industry integration, two years later Ning launched another round of ambitious restructuring, including a group operation platform based on all business units, which was dubbed ‘limited diversification.’ For his efforts to make his companies the most powerful businesses in China, Ning Gaoning was named by the Chinese media as among the Most Influential People in the Global Financial Industry in 1999 and the Most Influential Entrepreneurs in China from 2003 to 2006.