Background
Wei Jiafu was born in 1950, he was raised on the coast of Jiangsu Province in a family of farmers. But his dreams took him elsewhere.
家福 魏
Wei Jiafu was born in 1950, he was raised on the coast of Jiangsu Province in a family of farmers. But his dreams took him elsewhere.
He became not only a high-powered executive but also a master of ships. His ten years of experience on the sea earned him the rank of captain, and his degrees have earned him the titles of senior engineer and doctor of ship and ocean structural design.
Wei’s shipping career began with subsidiaries of COSCO, a Chinese stateoperated shipping firm that included Guangzhou Ocean Shipping Co., a joint Chinese-Tanzanian Shipping Company, COSCO Holdings Ltd in Singapore, and a bulk shipping division of COSCO based in Tanjian. Through these companies he worked his way up COSCO’s executive ladder, eventually becoming president and CEO.
But Captain Wei was not satisfied with the direction in which either his company or the shipping industry was headed. At the time, COSCO was a large group that dealt only with shipping and reacted to party directives rather than market needs. Wei believed that if COSCO were to remain a key player in the shipping industry, it would have to drastically alter its relationship with the Chinese government as well as developing its products and services. Captain Wei felt that a market-oriented strategy was the only way to remain successful. Under his leadership COSCO was restructured so that the group would ultimately concede power to the government but was nonetheless targeted on fulfilling demand and making profits.
In addition, Wei understood that the shipping business was pegged to freight rates that fluctuated wildly, whereas logistical services are far more stable. So Captain Wei sought to further expand the business when he began moving COSCO toward logistics, a service of rapidly growing global importance. His leadership and foresight allowed the company to thrive both in China and internationally. Today Wei’s COSCO is larger than ever before. With over 600 vessels able to carry 35 million deadweight tons at any one time, the $17 billion company is one of the most prominent shipping companies in the world. It employs 80 000 staff members around the world with ties in 1300 ports in more than 160 countries.
His reputation has earned him positions on various international shipping organizations, everywhere from the Panama Canal to Harvard University to the Chinese Central Committee for Discipline Inspection. Recognizing that there is an immense trade imbalance between trans-Pacific shippers and carriers, which burdens carriers with excessively high costs, Wei believes that the whole supply chain industry should recognize that a more collaborative relationship is a must, and he has been using his influence in those leadership positions to effectively express his strong opinions regarding the global shipping industry in the coming decades.