Zhou Qunfei

Background

Zhou Qunfei was born in 1970 to a poor family in Xiangxiang, Hunan province, China. Before she was born, her father became blind in an accident in the 1960s, and when she was five her mother died.

Education

In Shenzhen she deliberately chose to work for companies near Shenzhen University, so she could take part-time courses at the university. She studied many subjects and passed the examinations to be certified for accounting, computer operations, customs processing, and even became licensed for driving commercial vehicles. Her biggest regret is not having studied English.

Career

After the public listing of her company on the Shenzhen ChiNext market in March 2015, her Netto worth temporarily reached United States$10 billion, making her the richest woman in China. She quit school at age 15 and became a migrant worker in Shenzhen, the special economic zone in Guangdong province. She worked for a small firm making watch parts.

When that business folded, she established her own company in 1993, with her savings of Hong Kong$20,000.

Zhou Qunfei said that over the years she had started 11 companies. Zhou Qunfei started touch-screen maker in 2003, and developed the company into the dominant player of the industry. supplies touch-screens to leading electronics makers such as Apple, Samsung Electronics, and Huawei.

The upcoming Apple Watches will use her company"s glass and sapphire crystal screens. As of April 2015, the company employs about 60,000 people.

On 18 March 2015, the 22nd anniversary of the founding of her first start-up, began trading on the ChiNext A-share market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

The company"s stock price rose by the market"s daily limit for 13 days in a row, and her Netto worth more than quintupled during the period to reach United States$10 billion. She surpassed Chen Lihua, who was worth United States$7.1 billion, to become the richest woman in China.

Achievements

• In 2001, she caught her big break when her company won a profitable contract to make mobile phone screens for the Chinese electronics giant TCL Corporation.