1. Ren Zhengfei is a Chinese entrepreneur and engineer who is the founder and CEO of Huawei Technologies, which is located in Shenzhen, China, and is the world's largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment and second largest manufacturer of smartphones.
Ren Zhengfei was born on 25 October 1944, in Zhenning County, Guizhou.
Ren Zhengfei's grandfather, Ren Sanhe, was a master chef from Rendian Village, Pujiang County, Zhejiang, and who specialized in curing ham.
Ren Zhengfei spent his primary and junior high school years in a mountain village.
In elementary and middle school, Ren Zhengfei was known for being withdrawn and unsociable, and he was denied admission to the Communist Youth League due to his insufficiently developed spirit of collectivism.
Ren Zhengfei later thought the pancake was crucial to his future achievements.
In 1963,19-year-old Ren Zhengfei was admitted to Chongqing Institute of Architectural Engineering to major in building services engineering.
In 1966, when Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, Ren Zhengfei, who was studying in college, received a letter mentioning that his father had been dismissed and criticized for his experience working in the Kuomintang's 412 military factory.
Ren Zhengfei boarded a train surrounded by Red Guards who were asking the passengers about their background.
Ren Zhengfei told his family that there were "infights" in college, and basically no one attended classes, but his father told him that knowledge was important and encouraged him to use it to help his brothers and sisters.
Ren Zhengfei collected leaflets and sent them to his mother to encourage his father who was in trouble.
In 1968, Ren Zhengfei graduated from university and was assigned to the 304th Battalion of the 31st Detachment of the Infrastructure Engineering Corps in Anshun, which was founded in 1966, to participate in the construction of the aircraft factory of the 011 base.
Ren Zhengfei served as a technician and engineer, working on automation processes in the chemical industry.
Ren Zhengfei received several awards for his proficiency and excellence in Maoist theory.
In March 1978,33-year-old Ren Zhengfei went to Beijing to attend the National Science Conference, which was attended by more than 6000 delegates.
Ren Zhengfei was only able to join the Party shortly before his retirement.
Ren Zhengfei requested that one of the company's subsidiaries be handed over to him, but the request was not approved.
At the beginning of establishing the company, friends recommended him to make money with high profits, but Ren Zhengfei thought that was not a long-term solution.
Later, Ren Zhengfei earned the first money for the company by selling HAX Technologies' program-controlled switches on consignment.
In September 1991, Ren Zhengfei assembled a Huawei program-controlled switch with his employees.
In 1992, Ren Zhengfei invited professors and students from Huazhong Technology University, Tsinghua University, and others to visit.
Ren Zhengfei decided to use switches in the R and D Bureau to enter the field of public telephones and telecommunications.
Ren Zhengfei hired Xu Wenwei from the nearby Yilida Group and put him in charge of the hardware.
In May 1993, Ren Zhengfei presided over a meeting of marketing managers and officially launched the JK1000 office telephone, after which more than 200 units were sold.
JK1000 products focus on the use of analog circuit technology rather than digital circuit technology, so that Ren Zhengfei made the mistake of not keeping up with the times.
Ren Zhengfei set up a "everyone shareholding system": converting half of his recorded wages into shares in Huawei, which can be exchanged for cash when he resigns.
In March 1996, Ren Zhengfei invited professors to form a Huawei basic law drafting group.
Ren Zhengfei has sought to ingrain CCP ideology into Huawei's management and corporate culture.
Ren Zhengfei sent the vice president to communicate with him many times, without success, but gave him a good sendoff.
In 2002, in the face of Harbor Network Company gaining market share and poaching Huawei employees, Ren Zhengfei withdrew the license granted by Huawei to Harbor Network to sell Huawei products, and set up a "hit Hong Kong Office" to block Harbor Network Company.
In 2005, Ren Zhengfei brought all the voice teams of the Harbor Shenzhen Research Institute to Huawei for 1 million.
On 10 May 2006, Ren Zhengfei met with Li Yinan at Huawei 3COM headquarters in Hangzhou.
Ren Zhengfei aims to gain international market share in four stages: the first is to penetrate the neighboring Hong Kong market; the second is to gain market share in Russia and South America; the third is aimed at Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa; and the fourth is to aim at developed countries.
Since 1996, Ren Zhengfei has successively hired IBM and other American and British companies to reform Huawei's R and D, supply chain, financial and market systems, integrate its product development system, integrate its supply chain, human resource management, financial management, and quality control.
In 1996, Ren Zhengfei led Huawei to compete in the international market, partnering with Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Telecom: Huawei provided it with commercial network products with narrow-band switches as its core products.
Ren Zhengfei now serves as a deputy chairman of the Board of Directors, but he is not currently one of the three rotating CEOs.
Ren Zhengfei had an annual revenue of US$92.5 billion in 2017.
Ren Zhengfei's younger brother, Ren Zhengfei Shulu, is a graduate of Yunnan University and has been an employee of Huawei since 1992.
Ren Zhengfei currently serves as a member of the Supervisory Board and head of the company's logistics support division.
Ren Zhengfei has worked at Huawei since 1993 and is currently the company's chief financial officer.
Ren Zhengfei has a passion for reading books on politics, economics, humanities, literature, and art.
Ren Zhengfei prefers historical literature the most and is least interested in fiction and management theory.
Ren Zhengfei is a fan of the TV series The Qin Empire, which tells the story of the reforms of Chinese statesman Shang Yang.
Ren Zhengfei purchased thousands of copies of the series for Huawei employees.