Background
Zhang Jindong was born in Anhui Province in 1963.
Zhang Jindong
Suning Group logo
劲东 张
Zhang Jindong was born in Anhui Province in 1963.
He graduated from the Nanjing Normal University and studied Chinese literature.
Zhang Jindong together with his old brother Zhang Guiping opened a shop on Ninghai Road corner Jiangsu Road in Nanjing, selling air conditioning and related products in 1990, The brand Suning came from choosing one word each from Jiang-su and Ning-hai; the roads theselves were named after the city and province of the same name. Later Zhang Guiping quit from this business but shifted into real estate, now known as Suning Universal. However, Zhang Jindong also started his own real estate company Suning Real Estate some time later.
Zhang Jindong further developed his small shop into a giant business group - the Suning Group, with only 15 years. He also found and co-found Suning Holdings Group and Suning Appliance Group as unlisted portion of the his business empire, leaving Suning Commerce Group as the only listing company. In 2013's Hurun Report's China Rich List, Zhang was ranked No.9 with $6.4 billion. Zhang Jindong was ranked 28th in 2015 Forbes's China Rich List. He was also elected to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a senior governmental body.
Zhang’s remarkable path models China’s dynamic economic development, and it is now increasingly reflected in the country’s political structures. Recently, Zhang joined the ranks of the 2237-member 11th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference that opened 3 March 2008 in Beijing as a representative of the so-called ‘New Class’, a term originally used at the 16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, which designates entrepreneurs, technologists, owners, ‘employees of intermediary organizations,’ and the self-employed in the private sector as well as managerial and technical staff in foreign-capital enterprises.
He is a philanthropist and stays for environmental protection.
Quotations: “It’s like playing sports. I’m not a good basketball player, but if we play table tennis, I will definitely win".
A Chinese literature major, Zhang is known to occasionally intersperse his conversations with flowery Chinese adages and phrases.
He is the father of Zhang Kangyang (Steven). Steven was one of the member of the board of directors of Inter Milan. Steven also owned 10% stake in Suning Real Estate, one of the company of his father's business empire.