Li Hejun was born in 1967, in Heyuan, Guangdong China. He is best known for being the chairman of the energy company Hanergy. Li is rated by Forbes magazine in 2015 as the 31st richest person in the world, and one of the top three richest people in China, argued depending on the variable share prices of the interests of the respective competitors.
Li Hejun Net Worth $21 Billion
So just how rich is Li Hejun? Forbes estimates that Li’s current net worth exceeds $21 billion, the majority of his wealth having been generated through his investment in the Hanergy company.
Li Hejun was educated at Beijing Jiaotong University-Baige Training Center, and then began his career in business by earning considerable money in the electronics trade in Beijing area. Li utilised these funds to eventually rise to prominence in the power industry. His rise to billionaire status is also the story of Hanergy, a company he founded in 1994 and which is still privately run, and which is now a multinational but headquartered in Beijing. The company has always concentrated on renewable energy sources, being initially involved in hydro-power. Subsequently the company took on the development of solar power on a large scale, beginning in the early years of the 21st century. It is now the world’s largest thin-film solar power company. Of course, Li Hejun’s net worth grew consistently with the success of his company.
At this point, Li Hejun was ready to expand internationally. In 2012, Hanergy bought Miasole in the USA for $30 million, and then acquired the German company Solibro, a subsidiary of Q-Cells. The conglomerate continued to grow with the purchase of Global Solar Energy in the USA, and in 2014 another US company, Alta Devices.
Hanergy’s latest expansion has been into India, where a subsidiary was established in late 2014, but meantime Li Hejun’s home country has not been forgotten, and Hanergy now runs one of the world’s largest privately owned hydropower plants, in western China’s Yunnan Province.
A significant appreciation of Li Hejun’s and Hanergy’s success is that the company has been listed in the MIT Technology Review at number 23 of the top 50 smartest companies in the world, which measures not only the commercial success of a company, but also the innovativeness and integrity of its operations. The Review stated that “the Chinese energy company is snapping up advanced solar technologies at fire-sale prices.
Li Hejun has also recently become an author, publishing a book in 2014 entitled “China’s New Energy Revolution.” Overall, there seems no reason to suppose that Li Hejun’s net worth will stop growing any time soon, given his apparent golden touch in Hanergy’s continued expansion and innovation in the renewable power industry around the world, particularly in respect of China and the problem of smog in the cities, and the fact that Li Hejun is still only 48 years old.
In his private life, Li Hejun is married and has one son.
