Wu Yajun (; born 1964) 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 ...

businesswoman who was at one time the world's richest self-made woman. She is the co-founder, chairwoman, and former CEO of Longfor Properties. From humble origins, she worked as a journalist and editor before moving into real estate in the 1990s, later investing in technology companies including

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...

and

Evernote Evernote is a note-taking and task management, task-management application software, application developed by the Evernote Corporation. History Evernote was acquired by the Italian technology company Bending Spoons in November 2022. Usage ...

. As of April 2021, Wu has an estimated net worth of US$18.3 billion.

Early life

Wu was born in

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

in 1964 to an ordinary family.
The China Daily, "The property billionaire who shuns publicity", 2010. She graduated from the Department of Navigation Engineering of the

Northwestern Polytechnical University Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU; ) is a public science and engineering university in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985 ...

in 1984.

Career

From 1984 to 1988, she worked at the Qianwei Meter Factory. From 1988 to 1993 she worked as a journalist and editor at the China Shirong News Agency. At the time the newspaper was controlled by the Construction Bureau of Chongqing Municipal Government, which proved essential for her in building up her network in the government and business world to then launch her career in the real estate industry. In 1995 Wu and her former husband, businessman Cai Kui, founded Chongqing Zhongjianke Real Estate Co Ltd with an initial capital investment of 10 million yuan. The company was later renamed as Longfor Properties. The enterprise grew rapidly thereafter, expanding from her home in Chongqing to include major cities like

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Changzhou Changzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling, and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Zhen ...

and

Dalian Dalian ( ) is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China (after Shenyang ...

. She became alumni member of the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in 2007.
Wu Jajun Alumni profile on the Website of the Cheung Kong School of Business. Longfor Properties went public on the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (, SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. It is one of the largest stock exchanges in Asia and the List of major stock exchanges, 9th largest globally by market ...

( SEHK) in 2009; notable investors are Singapore's government, Ping An Insurance and

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited ( ) is a Singaporean State ownership, state-owned multinational investment firm. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek has a net portfolio of US$288 billion (S$389 billion) as of 2024. Headquartered at Orchard ...

. Wu is the chairwoman and former CEO of Longfor Properties.

Wealth

Wu's wealth is managed by a firm named Wu Capital, which was founded in 2013. Since inception, Wu Capital has made investments in technology companies including

and

. She is the third-richest woman in China, and the 22nd-richest overall, according to the Hurun Report China Rich List 2013.
Hurun Report China Rich List, 2013 In 2012, she was the richest woman in China, and fifth-richest person in the country.
List of Richest Chinese by Forbes, 2012. She lost that position to Yang Huiyan due to her divorce from Cai Kui. As of March 2013 she was the 299th-richest person in the world, and among the top 50 Power-women list by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'', with a net worth of US$4.4 billion. She is a member of the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress (NPC) is the highest organ of state power of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The NPC is the only branch of government in China, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs from the Sta ...

. In 2014, she was listed as the 41st most powerful woman in the world by ''Forbes''. In March 2019, ''

Barron's ''Barron's'' (stylized in all caps) is an American weekly magazine and newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp, since 1921. Founded as ''Barron's National Financial Weekly'' in 1921 by Clarence W. Barron (1855–19 ...

'' reported that, after a seven year gap, Wu was once again the world's richest self-made woman.

Personal life

In 2012, Wu divorced her husband Cai Kui, thereby losing her status as richest woman in China to Yang Huiyan. Wu's stake in Longfor fell to 45%, with Cai Kui holding a 30% stake. She has one child.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Yajun 1964 births Living people 20th-century Chinese businesswomen 20th-century Chinese businesspeople 21st-century Chinese businesswomen 21st-century Chinese businesspeople Businesspeople from Chongqing Chinese billionaires Chinese chief executives Chinese company founders Chinese newspaper journalists Chinese businesspeople in real estate Chinese women in politics Female billionaires Delegates to the 11th National People's Congress from Chongqing People's Republic of China politicians from Chongqing