Zhang Xin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Zhang Xin
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Zhang in 2019
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| Born | 24 August 1965 Beijing, China
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| Education | University of Sussex University of Cambridge |
| Occupation | Co-Founder, SOHO China Founder, Closer Media |
| Spouse(s) | Pan Shiyi |
| Children | 2 |
Zhang Xin is a very successful Chinese businesswoman. She is known for making a lot of money in the real estate business. With her husband, Pan Shiyi, she helped start and used to be the CEO of SOHO China. This company builds office buildings in China. In 2022, she stepped down from her role to focus on helping the arts and doing charity work.
Now, Zhang Xin is the founder of Closer Media. This is a film company in New York City that makes and helps pay for movies. Zhang Xin grew up in simple conditions in Beijing and Hong Kong. She even worked in factories for a while. Later, she became the owner of companies that built many buildings in Beijing and Shanghai.
In the mid-2010s, Zhang Xin changed her business. Instead of just building and selling properties, she started buying them and renting them out. She also bought big parts of famous buildings in New York City, like Park Avenue Plaza and the General Motors Building. In 2015, she launched SOHO 3Q, which offers shared office spaces.
In 2014, Forbes magazine said Zhang Xin was one of the most powerful women in the world. She is often called one of the top businesswomen globally. Zhang Xin and her husband were also named among the "world's most powerful couples." She is one of China's most famous female business owners. She has almost 10 million followers online on Sina Weibo.
Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi started the SOHO China Foundation in 2005. This charity focuses on education to help reduce poverty. In 2014, the Foundation started the SOHO China Scholarships. These scholarships help Chinese students pay for college at top universities around the world. The scholarships support about 50 Chinese students studying at Harvard, Yale, and the University of Chicago.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Zhang Xin's parents came from Burma to China in the 1950s. They worked as translators. Her parents separated during the Cultural Revolution.
Zhang Xin was born in Beijing in 1965. After her parents separated, she stayed with her mother. When she was 15, they moved to Hong Kong. They lived in a very small room. To save money for school abroad, she worked for five years. She worked in small factories that made clothes and electronics.
By the time she was 19, she had saved enough money. She flew to London and studied English at a secretarial school in Oxford. To support herself in the UK, she worked in a traditional British fish and chip shop. It was run by a Chinese couple. She looked up to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as a role model.
In 1987, she earned a scholarship while still studying in London. This allowed her to study economics at the University of Sussex. She earned her bachelor's degree there. In 1992, she got her master's degree in development economics from Cambridge University. Her master's paper was about how private businesses grew in China. In 2013, the University of Sussex gave Zhang Xin an honorary doctorate degree.
Building a Business
Starting Out
After college, Zhang Xin was hired by Barings PLC. This company looked for students who knew about private businesses in China. Zhang Xin's master's paper helped her get the job. She went back to Hong Kong to work. In 1993, her team at Barings was bought by Goldman Sachs. Zhang Xin then moved to New York City. There, she helped Chinese factories become public companies on the stock market.
She was very interested in how cities were growing in China. So, she returned to her hometown, Beijing. In 1994, she met and married her husband, Pan Shiyi. He reportedly asked her to marry him just four days after they met! In 1994, they started a building project together. It was called "New Town."
In 1995, she co-founded Hongshi (meaning Red Stone) with her husband. This company later became SOHO China. Over the next ten years, they started six more building projects in China. These included homes in Boao and the Commune by the Great Wall. The Commune was a special hotel in Beijing. It showed the work of twelve Asian architects chosen by Zhang Xin.
Early in their marriage and business, Zhang Xin and her husband had different ideas. This caused some problems. Zhang Xin even went back to England for a while to think. She decided to return to her husband. For a time, she left the business. Later, she came back to focus on the design part as the business grew.
Later Projects
Within 10 years of starting their company, it became the biggest property developer in China. Zhang Xin became known as "the woman who built Beijing." By 2008, The Times newspaper called the couple "China's most visible and flamboyant property tycoons."
In 2011, Zhang Xin started to change her business. Instead of just building and selling properties, she began buying and renting out space. She also expanded outside of China. She bought a $600 million part of New York City's Park Avenue Plaza. Then, in 2014, she joined a group that bought 40 percent of the General Motors Building in Manhattan. This cost about $1.4 billion. By that time, Zhang Xin, through SOHO China, was involved in 18 building projects in Beijing and 11 in Shanghai.
In 2014, Zhang Xin and her husband started a $100 million charity project. It was called the SOHO China Scholarships. This project helps Chinese students who need financial help to attend top schools around the world. They gave over $10 million to Yale University, over $15 million to Harvard University, and $10 million to the University of Chicago. Some people thought the money should have been used to improve schools in China. The SOHO China Scholarships help about 50 Chinese students study for their first college degree at these partner universities.
SOHO China changed its business from building and selling properties to buying and renting them. Zhang Xin helped launch SOHO 3Q in February 2015. This offers shared office spaces to companies in Chinese cities.
Zhang Xin moved to the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. She left SOHO China in September 2022.
Awards and Recognition
Zhang Xin has won international awards for her work in architecture and as a business owner. In 2002, she received a special prize at the 8th la Biennale di Venezia. This was for the Commune by the Great Wall, which is now a hotel.
Zhang Xin is a member of the World Economic Forum in Davos. She is also on the board of the Harvard Global Advisory Council. She was a trustee for the China Institute in America from 2005 to 2010. The China Institute gave her a Blue Cloud Award in 2010. In 2014, Forbes magazine listed Zhang Xin as the 62nd most powerful woman in the world. She is often called one of the top businesswomen globally. Forbes has also ranked Zhang Xin and her husband among the "world's most powerful couples." Zhang Xin has been named a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art and the Asia Business Council.
Zhang Xin had a small role in the 2010 movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. She played a Chinese investor.
Personal Life
Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi have two sons. They are followers of the Baháʼí Faith.
