He Qiaonu:The Unsung Philanthropist
Text by Yuan Ningchen
At the November 12, 2015 launch ceremony of the China Global Philanthropy Institute (CGPI), He Qiaonu, a well-known female Chinese entrepreneur, stood next to Bill Gates, the wealthiest man in the world and a famous American entrepreneur and philanthropist, as her partner.
A joint initiative organized by five philanthropists from both China and the United States, CGPI is the first of its kind in China. Joining He and Gates, the other three philanthropists are Ray Dalio, council member of the Beijing Dali Charity Foundation, Niu Gensheng, founder and honorary president of the Laoniu Foundation, and Ye Qingjun, honorary president of the Dunhe Foundation.
The CGPI’s establishment rocked China in 2015.
At the Fourth China Charity Fair held in September 2015, He Qiaonu pledged to the public to donate all of her 76.3 million personal shares of Orient Landscape Industry Group Ltd. (OL in brief), worth 2.923 billion yuan that day, to Beijing Qiaonu Foundation (BQF), to be dispersed yearly in accordance with the progress of its programs. Her goal is to build the BQF into the “most influential family foundation in China.”
The two striking moves won the lady the fame of an “unsung hero” of the country’s philanthropy.
Business Success
He Qiaonu founded OL in 1992 while selling potted plants. Eventually, her company was appraised at 100 billion yuan. Leading China’s urban gardening market, OL was an honored product contributor to venues of the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as the 2010 Shanghai Expo. The company is actually the global leader in gardening supplies sales with the biggest market value.
In August 2015, OL relocated and became Oriental Landscape Investment Holdings Group, focusing on environmental protection, cultural tourism, weddings, the internet, medical services, and insurance. “Within three to five years, our company will reach 100 billion yuan in market value,” declared He. “It won't take us a decade to establish five different companies focused on different fields, each worth 100 billion yuan."
On Forbes’ 2015 rich list, He and her husband, Tang Kai, ranked 79th with a value of 18.1 billion yuan, 250 percent of their 2014 estimated worth of 7.34 billion yuan.
Model Charity
BQF was founded in 2012 to serve in a wide array of realms ranging from environmental protection, ecological research, international cooperation, the arts, and traditional Chinese culture to female entrepreneurship, poverty alleviation, medical service, education, and charity-related forums.
In terms of investment in education, BQF established the OL Scholarship at Wuyi No.1 Middle School in Zhejiang Province and donated 40 million yuan to found the Education Development Foundation at Beijing Forestry University, He’s alma mater. In June 2014, she donated 25 million yuan to establish the Ecological Finance Think Tank at China’s Renmin University, the first of its kind in China. To date, BQF has set up four ecology-related think tanks in Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University, and Beijing Forestry University.
Prior to BQF’s founding, He Qiaonu traveled with Wang Zhenyao, dean of China Philanthropy Research Institute, to Europe and the United States, where she studied professionally at Harvard University. During her stay there, she met with representatives of well-known American family foundations such as the Rockefellers, the Rothschilds, and Bill & Melinda Gates to enhance her understanding of how to optimally use her fortune for philanthropic deeds by establishing a family foundation in her name.
During her contact with Bill Gates, who has already retired from the business arena, He was deeply impressed and greatly inspired by his bravely creative charity work.
“Different people must serve in different roles to bring things to the world,” Gates stressed to her. “Some are politicians, some entrepreneurs, and others philanthropists. Only a concerted effort by all of these people will make the world a better place.”
For He, China’s philanthropy is experiencing an early spring, with many entrepreneurs awake and ready to sow seeds. “I want to be part of it and contribute whatever I can to help China’s philanthropy develop in a scientific, internationalized, and sustainable way.”
She regularly works 12 hours a day, six days a week, staying calm and confident as she designs a new career, managing to enjoy every moment of her life, “blossoming gracefully.”
Under the current legal framework in China, donating shares worth up to 2.9 billion yuan to charity is still a complicated task. The promulgation of the Charity Law will give tax exemptions to donors. He Qiaonu is hoping to set a pristine example for other entrepreneurs in the country to make big-time donations.