Chen Feng (businessman)

Chen Feng
Feng in April 2014
Born	1953 (age 63–64) Huozhou, Shanxi province, China
Nationality	China
Education	M.B.A. Maastricht School of Management
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Founder of HNA Group and Hainan Airlines

Chen Feng (born 1953) is a Chinese businessman and founder of the Chinese business conglomerate HNA Group and Hainan Airlines.

Chen Feng was born in June 1953 in Huozhou, Shanxi province and raised in Beijing, the son of middle-rank Communist Party officials. During the Cultural Revolution, Feng worked for the People's Liberation Army Air Force in the Sichuan; after the revolution was over in 1979, Feng worked for the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the National Air Regulations Bureau in China. In 1984, he won a scholarship to study at the Lufthansa College of Air Transportation Management in Germany. In 1989, he took a job at the World Bank's loan office in Haikou and in 1990, he went to work for the Aviation Business Assistant to Provincial Governor in Hainan province which had seen a surge indevelopment as a tourist destination.

Chen would get further education during his career including a M.B.A. from the Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands in 1995 and obtained a diploma from Harvard Business School in 2002.

After efforts by Hainan Province to establish a regional airline (Hainan Provincial Airlines) were not successful, Chen was tasked with bringing in private expertise and investment. Chen was able to raise 250 million yuan (US$31.25 million) in new capital, 75% from 24 institutional investors, 20% from existing corporate staff, and 5% from the Hainan government. In 1993, Chen launched the Hainan Airlines Company Limited China's first joint-stock air-transport enterprise. Due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis - which caused the collapse of several local financial and real estate companies - the airline was recapitalized by the Hainan government and restructured and its name changed to Hainan Airlines (HNA) Company, Ltd. Hainan province was particularly affected by the crisis due to it being both a tourist and retirement destination that had seen a high amount of speculative development and lending. In 1995, George Soros invested $25 million in the airline for a 14.8% stake, becoming its largest shareholder.