Jiemian News has released the CEO series list for the seventh consecutive year, and has made appropriate expansion on the basis of inheriting last year. In addition to the main list of "Super CEO of the Year", this year's series of sub-lists include: "Real Estate CEO of the Year", "Financial CEO of the Year", "New Energy CEO of the Year", "Automotive CEO of the Year", "Healthcare CEO of the Year", "Female CEO of the Year", "Technology CEO of the Year" and "Multinational China CEO of the Year".
Jiemian News' "Super CEO of the Year" series of lists focuses on outstanding managers in various industries who lead companies to grow steadily, continuously achieve financial growth, bring returns to shareholders in the long and short term, and take into account their personal reputation. The "Super CEO of the Year" series of lists and the "Professional Manager of the Year" list together constitute Jiemian News' evaluation system for the company's executives.
The Technology CEO of the Year list focuses on working CEOs in the technology industry in Chinese mainland. In this article, CEO is the unified title for the positions of CEO, president, general manager, and president. "When science and technology prosper, the nation will prosper, and when science and technology are strong, the country will be strong", a country's scientific and technological strength is an important component of a country's comprehensive national strength, and an important manifestation of a country's competitiveness. In the context of building a strong country in science and technology, the 25 CEOs selected for Jiemian News' 2023 list of CEOs in the technology industry have led the company to consolidate its position and grow steadily, with extraordinary performance.
The technology industry defined by Jiemian News is mainly the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, and the derivative application industry based on it. In the post-epidemic era, the development of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, metaverse, semiconductors/integrated circuits and other subdivisions is particularly eye-catching.
"Science and technology are the primary productive forces, talent is the first resource, and innovation is the first driving force" is the focus of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and science and technology are the foundation of the country's prosperity. The Internet, software, the metaverse, digitalization, artificial intelligence and machine science Xi profoundly affect our production and life, and the demand for hard technology infrastructure such as communication technology and semiconductors is steadily increasing.
In June 2019, the Science and Technology Innovation Board was officially launched, and as of December 4, 2023, more than 560 companies have been listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, with a total market value of 6,911.7 billion yuan, accounting for 7.79% of the total market value of all A-shares. The companies listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board are mainly innovative companies with new economy, core key technologies, and high-tech services for the national grand strategy. In April 2021, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) revised the evaluation index system for the attributes of science and technology, adding a 10% proportion index for R&D personnel, restricting the listing of model innovation enterprises of fintech enterprises on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and prohibiting real estate and enterprises mainly engaged in financial investment business from listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. It has made it clearer the positioning that can be founded, opened the way for excellent "hard technology" enterprises, and supported and encouraged "hard technology" enterprises to go public.
Electronic technology industries such as chips and semiconductors have the characteristics of high technical barriers, wide application scenarios, and great value creation. From mobile phones, home appliances, automobiles, to high-speed rail, industry, to the Internet of Things, cloud computing and other fields, chips are inseparable. In March 2021, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the development of industry and informatization, at which it stated that the Chinese government attaches great importance to the chip and integrated circuit industry, issued policies to promote the high-quality development of the integrated circuit industry and software, and comprehensively optimized and improved the relevant environmental policies for the high-quality development of the chip and integrated circuit industry.
ChatGPT has taken us into the wonderful world of artificial intelligence and machine learning Xi, generative AI has been initially applied, and it is no longer a myth that robots are given to think. ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by artificial intelligence technology, which can chat and interact with humans through context, and can even complete tasks such as copywriting, translation, writing code, and writing papers.
At present, the world has entered the era of digital economy, and our clothing, food, housing and transportation are gradually in line with digitalization, offline and online have begun to converge, and public services such as hospitals, governments, and schools have begun to undergo digital transformation.
According to the "Research Report on the Development of China's Digital Economy (2023)" released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the scale of the mainland's digital economy will reach 50.2 trillion yuan in 2022, a nominal increase of 10.3% year-on-year, which has been significantly higher than the nominal GDP growth rate in the same period for 11 consecutive years, and the proportion of the digital economy in GDP is equivalent to the proportion of the secondary industry in the national economy, reaching 41.5%.
Returning to the 2023 Technology CEO List, the 25 CEOs on the list all manage companies with strong performance, with median revenue growth and net profit growth of 12% and 7% respectively over the past year, as well as median return on equity and net profit margin of 14% and 9%, respectively. The average market value reached 375.8 billion yuan.
Of the 25 CEOs, 14 are listed on the mainland, 7 are listed in Hong Kong, 2 are listed in the United States, and 2 are not listed (if listed in multiple places, the earlier listed time shall prevail). In terms of average market capitalization/valuation, the average market capitalization of the A-share market, the Hong Kong stock market and the U.S. stock market is 142 billion yuan, 699.3 billion yuan and 577.1 billion yuan respectively. The two companies that are not listed are Huawei and Douyin, with an average valuation of 1.75 trillion yuan.
In the complex economic environment and fierce industry competition, how to lead the company to ride the wind and waves and go through the cycle is a huge test for the CEO. The top 25 CEOs on this list are all top minds in the tech industry. According to wind data, in 2022, 17 of the 25 CEOs on the list disclosed their salaries, with the highest salary reaching 38.694 million yuan, and 12 CEOs held shares in the company.
Among the CEOs of the tech industry, men predominate. Among the 25 CEOs on the list, there are only three female CEOs, namely Zhang Nan, CEO of Douyin, Wang Laichun, general manager of Luxshare Precision, and Sun Jie, co-president of Ctrip.com. From the perspective of age, the post-60s and post-70s generations are the main force of CEOs in the technology industry, with the combined number of the two exceeding 90%.
Among the 25 CEOs on the list, 23 disclosed their academic qualifications, and 12 had master's and 3 doctorates, accounting for more than 60%.
From the perspective of sub-industries, the Internet/software industry has the largest number of enterprises, reaching 11, and there are four integrated circuits and electronic equipment each.
Ren Zhengfei, president of Huawei, topped the list. In addition to being a well-known entrepreneur, Ren Zhengfei is also a strategist. Huawei's countless strategic backups and technological breakthroughs are inseparable from Ren Zhengfei's foresight and advanced deployment. This year is a year of accumulation and pride. The release of the mate60 Pro mobile phone based on the Kirin 9000S chip, which can make satellite calls, marks China's breakthrough in the blockade of high-end mobile phone chips. The release of the Atlas 900 AI cluster, based on thousands of Ascend processors, allows China to come up with China's own alternative solutions in the context of the supply of NVIDIA's high-end graphics cards. The model of "car + Huawei" is reflected in more and more car brands, and Hongmeng Zhixing has joined forces with Celis, BAIC Blue Valley, Chery, and JAC. Huawei's killer features seem to have many more, and it also deserves the title of "far ahead".
Zhang Nan, CEO of Douyin Group, ranked second on the list. In 2018, Zhang Nan became the first female CEO of Douyin, launched short video-related products such as Douyin and Volcano, and then led ByteDance's camera business, developing products such as Light Face and Jianying. According to QuestMobile data, Douyin's monthly active users reached more than 700 million in May 2023. Douyin is a phenomenal app and China's premier internet traffic pool. In 2020, Zhang Nan was promoted to the CEO of Beijing ByteDance and became the head of the China business, in addition to being responsible for the products, operations, markets and content of the Chinese business, he also continued to promote the business of combining Douyin and e-commerce business, during this year's Double 11, Douyin live broadcast accumulated 58.27 million hours, and the GMV of the mall increased by 119% year-on-year.
Zhang Qingyuan, general manager of Jinshan Office, ranked tenth on the list. Zhang Qingyuan joined Kingsoft in 2000, starting as a programmer, and then worked his way up to project manager, technical director, vice president and CTO of Kingsoft Office Software, and then became the general manager of Kingsoft Office in 2020. WPS is the first product after the establishment of Kingsoft Office, and Zhang Qingyuan is responsible for the process of WPS product development and operation, and leads the team to obtain a number of national patents. In 2019, WPS was listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and as a "technology-oriented" technology company, the entry of capital has added more possibilities for the company's development. As of December 6, 2023, the market value of Kingsoft Office reached 140.8 billion yuan.
SMIC's co-CEO Liang Mengsong ranked 14th. Liang joined SMIC in 2019, and about three years after joining SMIC, SMIC has completed five generations of technological breakthroughs from 28nm to 7nm. Liang Mengsong has worked in many well-known semiconductor companies such as AMD, TSMC, Samsung, etc., and has rich relevant experience and superb chip process research and development technology. In 2022, SMIC's total operating revenue reached RMB50.8 billion, up 33.87% year-on-year, and net profit reached RMB12.7 billion, up 6.82% year-on-year. SMIC is currently filling 28nm and above production capacity to stabilize the demand for mature processes.
Jiemian News compiles the list through enterprise declaration, desktop research, enterprise visits, data models and other links. The selection dimensions mainly include: enterprise size (25%), financial performance (40%), shareholder return (20%), and personal reputation (15%). Through model estimation, the shortlist and final list are formed. Foreign currencies have been converted to RMB in the statistical process, and rounding has been carried out when the data is presented.