Hu Xiaolian (胡曉煉)

 Company: People's Bank of China (中國人民銀行)

Headquarters: Beijing

Main focus: Monetary policy

Title: Deputy governor

Age: 54

2011 Rank: 19

After graduating from the Economics Department of the Graduate School of the People's Bank of China in 1984, Hu Xiaolian worked for the State Administration of Foreign Exchange for more than 20 years. In August 2004, Hu joined the People's Bank of China; she was appointed deputy governor of the bank in July of 2009.

Earlier last year, Hu proposed that the central bank would introduce a "social financing aggregate." This new concept is expected to reflect the increasing diversification of financial resources on the market.