Eric Li Shufu (; born 25 June 1963) is a Chinese

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of

Geely Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. (ZGH), commonly known as Geely Holding ( ; ), is a Chinese multinational automotive conglomerate headquartered in Hangzhou, China. The company was founded by, and is privately owned by Chinese entrepre ...

Early life

Li Shufu was born in Taizhou,

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

. He has a master's degree from Yanshan University.

Career

Li founded

in November 1986; it is now the second-largest private automobile manufacturer in China. On 28 March 2010, Geely signed a deal worth

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

1.8 billion to buy Swedish automobile manufacturer

Volvo Cars Volvo Car AB, trading as Volvo Cars (, styled VOLVO in the company's logo) is a Sweden, Swedish multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles. Volvo is headquartered in Torslanda, Gothenburg. The company manufactures SUVs, station wagons, and ...

from American automobile manufacturer

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

. It was the largest foreign purchase by a Chinese car manufacturer. Along with $900m of working capital from Geely and a commitment to build a Volvo factory in China, Li had a target of driving sales to 600,000 by 2015 in the domestic market. In 2013,

Hurun Report Hurun () is a town in Jingxi, Guangxi, China. See also *List of township-level divisions of Guangxi This is a list of township-level divisions of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China (PRC). After province, prefectur ...

ranked Li the 63rd richest person in

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

, with a net worth of US$2.6

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

. Li announced in November 2018 that he had entered into an agreement with the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. to build a new line of supersonic bullet trains. The plan is for the trains to run using newly developed technology. Li said, "Core technology can't be bought. The more you use others' technology, the more reliant you become. We have to innovate on our own. The journey will be tough but the prospects are promising." In 2018, according to the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'', Li became Daimler's largest shareholder, with a 9.7% stake in the German automaker. In March 2020, Li was in talks to merge Volvo with Geely in a move to create a global automaker. Both Volvo and Geely were owned by Li's investment fund Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, but operated as separate entities. In September 2022, Shufu's group acquired a 7.6% stake in

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC () is a British manufacturer of Luxury car, luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Headed from 1947 by David Brown (entrepreneur ...

. In May 2023 Geely increased its stake to 17%, becoming the third-largest shareholder.

Political life

Li is a member of the 14th National Committee of the

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s United front (China), united front system. Its members adv ...

(CPPCC). Li served as an independent non-party affiliated delegate to the

13th National People's Congress The 13th National People's Congress (NPC) was elected from October 2017 to February 2018 and was in session in the five-year period from 2018 to 2023. It held five sessions in this period, occurring around early March every year until before 202 ...

, as one of the 94 delegates from Zhejiang.

Economic views

Li has criticized the automotive industry joint venture system in China as producing large profits for foreign original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier 1 suppliers at the expense of innovation, quality, and technology advancement by Chinese automotive OEMs. According to Li, this has led to complacency by domestic automotive OEMs by relying on profits from foreign partners through joint ventures instead of driving their own organisations to hire talent and improve, knowing they would control half of joint ventures run with profitable overseas manufacturers that generate healthy sales. He has previously argued for state-owned automotive manufacturers to partner with privately run companies.

Personal life

Li is married to Wang Li, () and the family resides in

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

, Zhejiang.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Shufu 1963 births People from Taizhou, Zhejiang Businesspeople from Zhejiang Geely people Volvo Cars Billionaires from Zhejiang Living people Chinese football chairmen and investors Chinese founders of automobile manufacturers Corporate executives in the automobile industry Volvo people Lotus Cars Chinese industrialists Yanshan University alumni Members of the 14th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Delegates to the 13th National People's Congress