Is Li Ying, the elusive millionaire who powered Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital to Silicon Valley success, the most eligible woman in China?
Once Jack Ma’s right-hand woman, Li Ying became one of China’s richest women after being poached by the Alibaba founder to run his private equity firm – now a free agent, will she become better known on the world stage?
Chinese investor Li Ying is often dubbed the female “Warren Buffett of China”.
In 2010, at the tender age of 29, Jack Ma – the co-founder of Alibaba Holdings, the owner of the South China Morning Post – personally asked Li three times to move from Silicon Valley to run Yunfeng Capital, Ma’s private equity firm. The firm focuses on hi-tech and new energy enterprises; Li eventually agreed and went on to become one of the co-founders along with Ma and David Yu.
There’s not much information on Li out there. She is known to be a fan of supercars; her collection includes a Bentley, a Mercedes-Maybach and a coveted red convertible Rolls-Royce Phantom.
Here’s how she became one of the richest women in China.
Li grew up in Shenzhen, China, until the second year of middle school when her parents suggested she continue her studies in the US. She initially hated the idea of relocating but after making a deal with her parents to skip some grades (middle to high school), she eventually agreed to the move.
It turned out that she was much more advanced than her peers and was accepted by MIT, Yale and Stanford at the age of 17. She chose MIT and completed her studies in three years. By the time she was 20, she had a Bachelor of Science in computer science, a Bachelor of Economics, and a Master’s degree in electronic engineering and computer science.