Zhang Yin (entrepreneur) facts for kids

Zhang Yin (Chinese: 张茵), also known as Cheung Yan, was born in 1957 in Shaoguan, China. She is a very successful Chinese businesswoman. People sometimes call her the "Queen of Trash" because her company makes a lot of money from recycling paper. She is one of the richest people in China.

Zhang Yin started a company called Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Limited. This company buys old paper from places like the United States. It brings the paper to China and turns it into cardboard. This cardboard is then used to make boxes for things that China exports to other countries. Her company is now the biggest paper maker in China.

Early Life and Challenges

Zhang Yin was born Zhang Xiuhua in 1957. She was the oldest of eight children. Later, she changed her name to Yin.

Her father was a soldier in the Red Army. He was put in jail for three years during a time called the Cultural Revolution. Because of this, Zhang Yin could not go to college. She started working when she was young to help her family. Her father's connections later helped her in her business career.

Building a Business Empire

Zhang Yin first worked as a bookkeeper in a textile factory. She also went to trade school to learn accounting. Later, she moved to Shenzhen. This city was becoming a big place for trade and exports. There, she managed accounting and trading for a paper company.

She learned about a great opportunity: trading waste paper from Hong Kong to China. In 1985, when she was 28, Zhang Yin used her savings of $3,800 to open her own paper trading company. It was called Ying Gang Shen and was in Hong Kong.

However, the quality of recyclable paper in China was not very good. So, in 1990, she moved to Los Angeles, USA. She wanted to find better paper sources. There, she started a new company called America Chung Nam with her second husband, Liu Ming Chung. Since 2001, this company has been the top American paper exporter. It is also the largest company to ship goods from the United States to China by how much it sends.

In 1995, Zhang Yin went back to Hong Kong. She wanted to make her business even bigger. With her husband and younger brother, Zhang Cheng Fei, she started Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Limited.

This company is based in Dongguan, China. In 2006, it raised almost $500 million by selling shares to the public for the first time. This is called an initial public offering. By 2009, the company had grown a lot. It became Asia's first and then the world's largest maker of packaging paper. By 2011, the company made US$3.8 billion in sales. It had 17,000 employees and could make huge amounts of paper for packaging every year.

Zhang Yin makes most of the big decisions for the company. Her husband is the CEO, and her brother manages the daily operations. Her son is also a director.

Awards and Recognition

In October 2006, Zhang Yin, at age 49, became the first woman to be named the richest person in China by the Hurun Report. In 2010, her personal wealth was about US$4.6 billion. This made her the wealthiest woman in the world who had earned her own money. She was even richer than famous people like Oprah Winfrey and J.K. Rowling.

In June 2014, Zhang was named the Asian CEO of the Year. This award recognized her great leadership in the paper industry.

As of July 2016, her wealth was estimated at US$1.12 billion.

Personal Life

Zhang Yin has two children. Her first marriage ended in divorce and she had one child from it. She met her second husband, Liu Ming Chung, in Hong Kong. They got married after moving to America. Liu was born in Taiwan and grew up in Brazil. He was trained to be a dental surgeon but decided to join his wife in the paper business instead.

Her children live and study in the United States. Her older son, Lau Chun Shun, is a director at Nine Dragons. Zhang Yin has said that her children will only inherit the company if they are capable enough to run it well.

She follows the religion of Buddhism. Zhang Yin also holds a green card for the United States.