How media-shy, mysterious Chinese business heavyweight Ye Jianming came to global attention

For someone who regularly hobnobs with the upper echelons of the international political and business elite and chairs a large conglomerate, Ye Jianming has had unusually little direct interaction with the media.

There is no official account of how 40 year-old Ye made his first pot of gold to help him set up his Shanghai-based business empire which straddles the energy and financial services sectors. An internet search offers up different versions of his life story.

One account, by Chinese news portal Depth-paper, said the former wood-products trader and guesthouse operator earned his first fortune by helping to extricate a Hong Kong businessman from financial strife, buying his portfolio of real estate on the cheap.

Another version by Fortune magazine said that after a brief stint in his home province of Fujian as a forestry department enforcement officer, Ye bought, through an auction, oil assets the government had confiscated from Xiamen’s smuggling kingpin, Lai Changxing, using loans from state banks, as well as money from investors in Hong Kong and Fujian.

The magazine last year ranked Ye second in its “40 Under 40” list of the world’s most influential young people, two spots ahead of French president Emmanuel Macron.