Li Lihui: Leading One Big Bank

Li Lihui is the Vice Chairman and President of Bank of China. This is one of the big four state-owned commercial banks of the China. It is one of the largest bank lenders in China and is also one of the biggest banks in the world. Thus it takes an exceptional amount of talent to be able to run this bank let alone being chosen to head it as in any government controlled institution there may be some degree of public politics involved in choosing who runs it.

Li though has good credentials. He was born in 1952 in Fujian Province, Putian City and joined the Communist Party of China in 1975. Li graduated from the Economics Department of Xiamen University in 1977 and earned a Doctorate in Economics from the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University in 1999.

Li has solid banking experience having held numerous banking positions. He started his career at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) in his native Fujian Province. There he served as director and Party member.  From January 1989 to July 1994 Li held various positions at ICBC such as Deputy General Manager of the Fujian Branch, Chief Representative of the Singapore Representative Office and General Manager of the International Business Department.  He was an Executive Vice President of ICBC from July 1994 to September 2002.

As he was part of the governing political party Li had the experience of serving as Deputy Governor of Hainan Province from September 2002 to August 2004. After t that period it was back to full time banking for Li; he has been the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of the Bank of China since August 2004.

Bank of China is a one-of-a- kind bank, since its founding in February 1912 to 1949 it served as the country’s central bank, international exchange bank, and specialized international trade bank. In 1994, it became a stated-owned bank after having been a specialized foreign exchange bank. It was incorporated as Bank of China Limited in August 2004. Li led the bank as it was listed on the Hong Kong Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange in June and July 2006 respectively.

Li heads China’s most internationalized bank which is still majority-owned by the state government.