Top 12 wealthiest Chinese women 2011

   Yang Huiyan (楊惠妍)

 

Yang Huiyan [citygf.com]

Age: 29

2011 net worth (US$): 4.5 billion

2010 net worth (US$): 3.5 billion

General ranking: 11

Company: Country Garden Holdings

Headquarters: Guangdong

Title: Executive director

Main focus: Real estate

At 29, Yang Huiyan is the youngest person on the Forbes Rich List this year. A year after graduating from Ohio State University in the United States in 2004, Yang inherited 70 percent of shares in Country Garden from her father, Yang Kwok Keung, who founded the company in 1997. The inheritance catapulted her the top of Forbes' China Rich List that year, with a net worth of US$16 billion, which also made her the wealthiest woman in Asia. After the company went public in 2007, Yang is still the majority shareholder, with 58.19 percent shares. In the first half of this year, the company reported sales revenue of US$3.2 billion, ranking seventh among China's property developers.

Though a "rich second-generation" member, Yang is seemingly less spoiled than her peers and aspires to gain social recognition through her own efforts. She has already made some changes to the company by introducing a brand-new management team and straightening out the accounting system and purchasing procedures, shouldering the responsibility of turning the family-style company into a business with modern management.