Xie Qihua (謝企華)

Company: China Reform Holdings Corporation Ltd. (國新控股有限公司)

Headquarters: Beijing

Main focus: Asset management

Title: Chairwoman

Age: 68

After graduating from Tsinghua University in 1966, Xie Qihua worked as a technician at a steel plant in northwest China's Shaanxi Province in 1968. Ten years later, she joined Shanghai Baoshan Steel Group as an engineer. She was named president in 1994 and chairwoman in 2003.

In 2007, Xie was relieved of her position at Baoshan Steel on account of her age. However, three years later, in December 2010, she was appointed board chairwoman of China Reform Holdings Corporation Ltd., a new asset-management company directly supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which looks to restructure and merge small, uncompetitive state-owned enterprises (SOEs).