Every month, Thinkers50 announces a Thinker of the Month and Zhang Ruimin, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Haier Group, is honored this May.

In 1984, Zhang Ruimin became Director of the Qingdao Refrigerator Factory, the predecessor of Haier. Over more than 30 years, he has turned a small collectively-owned factory with a 1.47m Yuan loss into a global enterprise with global turnover of 188.7b Yuan (2015). Haier now tops the Global Major Appliance Brand rankings with the highest retail volume – and has done so for seven consecutive years. Haier is also included in the World Brand Top 100 and was ranked number one in the global white goods industry. Among many firsts, Zhang Ruimin was the first Chinese entrepreneur to give a speech at Harvard.