Wang Wei
44-year-old billionaire Wang Wei was born in Shanghai and moved to Hong Kong when he was seven. He founded delivery company S F Express in 1993 with a US$13,000 loan from his father, formerly a Russian interpreter for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force. From six deliverymen, including Wang, and a van, SF Express grew its cross-border express services and now, as ‘the Fedex of China’, it boasts 290,000 employees. By age 25 Wang Wei was a millionaire, but took a huge risk when he collateralised the entire company to the Bank of China to borrow money to fund his China venture. It worked and his business took off, along with China’s burgeoning e-commerce business. In 2014, S F Express launched convenience-store chain Heike.
