Zong qinghou biography of william

Chinese businessman (1945–2024)

In this Chinese name, the family name is Zong.

Zong Qinghou (Chinese: 宗庆后; 11 October 1945 – 25 February 2024) was a Chinese billionaire businessman, and the founder, chairman and CEO of the Hangzhou Wahaha Group, China's leading beverage company.^[4] As of March 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$8.7 billion.^[2]

Biography

Zong was born on 11 October 1945,^[5][6] into a poor family in Zhejiang,^[7]: 75 and he had little formal education. Because of the family's poverty, Zong had to drop out of middle school.^[7]: 75 Zong was part of the sent-down movement and worked in Zhoushan^[7]: 75 at a salt farm. In his spare time, Zong read and studied communist texts including The Collected Works of Mao Zedong and How the Steel was Tempered by Nikolai Ostrovsky.^[7]: 75