Chuanzhi Liu

Chuanzhi Liu is the founder of Lenovo, the second largest computer manufacturer in the world. Liu graduated from Xi’an Military Communication Engineering Institution (now named Xidian University) in 1996. At the age of 22, Liu was sent to work at a state-owned rice farm near Macau in Guangdong province after making negative remarks against the Chinese cultural revolution. Liu returned to Beijing where he took up a post in 1970 as an engineer-administrator at the Computer Institute that had earlier developed the Number 104, Number 109 and Number 111 mainframe computers. Liu worked on the development of the Number 757 mainframe computer. In 1984 Liu resigned his post to become a cadre in the Bureau of Personnel Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1984 along with ten other colleagues of the Institute of Computing Technology and an initial capital of RMB 200,000, Liu founded the New Technology Development Company, which was later named Legend. Liu was appointed as President of Legend in 2001 and functioned as Chairman of the company in 2009, a position he held till 2011. Liu has been awarded many accolades and honors, including the first prize of the ""Second National Hi-Tech Industry Pioneer Golden Award"", ""China's Outstanding Young Experts"", ""Man of Reform in China"", ""National Model Worker”, ""Asian Businessman of the Year"", ""Asian Star"", ""Businessman of the Year in China"" and also honors for contributions towards Sino-US relations.