Background
Shi was born in Yangzhong, Jiangsu province, China. His identical twin brother is Chen Henglong, who is also a tycoon.
正荣 施
Shi was born in Yangzhong, Jiangsu province, China. His identical twin brother is Chen Henglong, who is also a tycoon.
He finished his undergraduate study at Changchun University of Science and Technology in Changchun, and obtained his Master's degree from Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Afterward, Shi went to the University of New South Wales's School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering where he obtained his doctorate degree on solar power technology. Arriving in Australia as a foreign exchange scholar in 1988, Shi received his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of New South Wales in 1992 under the supervision of Martin A. Green, a renowned world leader in photovoltaics.
From 1992 to 1995, Shi was a senior research scientist and the leader of the thin film solar cells research group in the Center of Excellence for Photovoltaic Engineering at the University of New South Wales, the only government-sponsored PV industry research center in Australia. From 1995 to 2001, he worked as a research and executive director of Pacific Solar Ltd, an Australian PV company engaged in the commercialization of next-generation thin film technology.
In 2001, Shi returned to China as an Australian citizen, and headed a solar-cell start-up company in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province with 20 workers. With unrelenting motivation, $6 million from the local Wuxi government and the additional assistance of his former UNSW colleagues, Shi soon had his first factory up and running, and sales boomed as the market for solar technology rapidly expanded.
Shi belongs to China’s new generation of entrepreneurs. He holds 11 patents in PV technologies and has published or presented a number of articles and papers in scientific journals and at conferences. In recognition of his contribution to China’s PV industry and the worldwide applications of PV technology, Shi was awarded in October 2005 the ‘PV-SEC Prize’ at the International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference, the only award winner who was from business. On 15 December 2005, Suntech successfully completed its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. As China’s first private high-tech corporation, the company has attracted investment from the mainstream international capital market and earned the highest market value in the world PV industry. In May of the following year Shi was awarded the ‘Best Entrepreneur Prize’ by the Southern California Asian Society, and in August he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the NYSE.
With a current market value of $6 billion, Suntech Power continues to expand at a phenomenal rate. Full of energy himself, Shi envisions his company growing to the size of oil conglomerates, as the world increasingly shifts from fossil fuels to renewable energy. His trailblazing efforts have also inspired six other former UNSW students to play a leading role in successful Chinese solar ventures of their own. As a result, China seems poised to overtake Japan as the global leader in solarcell manufacturing.