Background
Li Lihui was born in 1952, Putian, Fujian Province.
礼辉 李
Li Lihui was born in 1952, Putian, Fujian Province.
Li joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1975 while still a student in the economics department at Xiamen University in Fujian Province, where he graduated with a degree in finance in 1977.
From 1988 to 1994 Li worked as general manager of the International Business Department in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). His other roles at the bank during this period included acting as chief representative of the Singapore Office and as deputy general manager for a city branch in Fujian Province. In 1994 Li was promoted to executive vice president of ICBC. After earning a doctorate in finance from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University in 1999, Li became deputy governor of Hainan Province (2002–04), an island in the South China Sea. In August 2004 Li was named vice chairman of the board of directors and president of the Bank of China. Since June 2005, he has served as chairman of the board of directors in BOC. Li has also served as chairman of Bohai Industry Investment Management Ltd since December 2006.
As president of the Bank of China, Li is a leading advocate of private banking services for wealthy Chinese citizens. The Bank of China and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have discreetly invited customers in Beijing and Shanghai with at least $1 million in liquid assets to open accounts. The banks will initially offer foreign exchange structured products, subscriptions to initial public offerings, and private equity lines. Li sees the number of Chinese millionaires increasing and states ‘Without a private banking service, it is impossible for a bank to become a top bank.’
Li has been active in growing the Bank of China’s presence both inside and outside mainland China. In 2005 a partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc was announced in which a $3.1 billion investment would give the British bank control of just under a 10 percent stake in the Bank of China. Other investments in the BOC were made with new partners the Swiss Bank UBS AG and Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd, amounting to an additional $500 million worth of BOC shares. In 2006, Li led BOC’s listing initiative on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. At the time this was the fourth largest IPO in the world, raising about $11.2 billion. A month later the BOC was successful in its mainland China IPO by offering up to 10 billion A-shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. In 2007 the Bank of China bought a stake in the Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise and renamed it BOC Aviation.
Li has positioned the Bank of China in the world of international sports with two initiatives. First, in his role as president of the Bank of China, Li has joined with China Network Communications Group, China Petrochemical Corporation, China Mobile Communications Corporation, Volkswagen Group China, Adidas Greater China, and Air China Limited to form the Beijing Olympic partners and to advance the concepts of ‘Green Olympics, Hi-tech Olympics and People’s Olympics’; second, under Li’s leadership, the Bank of China’s wholly-owned investment group, Bank of China Group Investment Limited (BOCGI), has partnered with ESPN, a division of the Walt Disney Company, Legend Holdings Limited, Li Ka Shing Foundation, and China Merchants Investments to purchase an 11 percent stake in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). Commenting on the occasion, NBA Commissioner David Stern believed that ‘the opportunity for basketball and the NBA in China is simply extraordinary . . . the expertise, resources and shared vision of these immensely successful companies will help us to achieve the potential we see in the region’ (NBA, 2008). Li’s enthusiasm for the investment is summed up in his comment: ‘The CBA is a truly extraordinary brand, backed by a passionate team of talented people and great fans all over China. The rapid growth of China’s basketball market will promise enormous business potential and strong growth for NBA China. We see great prospects in the cooperation’ (NBA, 2008).