Jiang Jianqing

President and Chairman, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

Date of Birth: 02/1953

In a defining moment, the Communist Party of China (CPC) began in 2002 to admit entrepreneurs – unabashed capitalists – to its ranks. Jiang Jianqing, Governor of ICBC, the world’s largest bank by market value and architect of plans to buy a 20% stake in Africa’s largest bank, Standard Bank, is not one of them. He is very much a cadre.

Born in 1953, Jiang joined the CPC in 1983 while an undergraduate at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics; he had earlier spent nine years of labour in the fields of Jiangxi and coal mines of Henan during the Cultural Revolution.

In 1986, he joined a Shanghai branch of ICBC (then the National Industrial and Commercial Bank) as a teller. He has since risen steadily to his current position of bank Governor. In 2006, he presided over ICBC’s public flotation on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, transforming it from a state owned bank into a public corporation, albeit one on which the government keeps a heavy grip. The Finance Ministry and Central Huijin, a state-owned finance company, each hold 35% of ICBC in renminbi-denominated A-shares; foreign investors hold a minority stake of dollar H-shares.

Jiang’s ties to the CPC are strong, and his rise in ICBC has been mirrored by his progress within the party. He was elected as an alternate member of the 16th CPC Central Committee in 2002 – an honour repeated at this year’s Party Congress – and that year also became a member of the central bank’s monetary policy department.

The Standard Bank deal represents China’s largest foreign investment in sub-Saharan Africa, a bold move from an executive with such an orthodox pedigree, but one that appeals to strongly to Standard’s shareholders. On 3 December 2007, they voted 95% in favour of the ICBC offer.