Here’s a pretty incredible story: The CEO of Apple touchscreen glass supplier Lens Technology has been named China’s richest woman, after demand for her company’s output saw shares climb 10 percent in a single day.
What’s impressive isn’t just that an Apple supplier rakes in enough cash to accumulate a $7.1 billion fortune, however, but rather the journey that 44-year-old Zhou Qunfei has taken to get there. Prior to getting into the glass manufacturing business as an executive in 2004, Qunfei worked on the factory line for another glass-maker in tech manufacturing hub Shenzhen.
From factory girl to employer of 60,000 people may be far and away the exception rather than the rule, but it’s still a demonstration of just what can be achieved with the right level of tenacity.
Revenue for Lens last year shot up 8.6 percent to $2.3 billion. In addition to Apple, the company also supplies components to Samsung and other tech firms. According to the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, its screens are used in more than 20 percent of the world’s smartphones.
Lens floated on the stock market earlier this year. Before the IPO, Zhou and her husband owned 99.1 percent of the company, a number that has since shrunk to “just” 88 percent.
Source: Forbes
