Zhang Jindong is a Chinese billionaire entrepreneur. He is one of the founders and the current largest shareholder of the Suning.com, headquartered in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. He also owned 100% stake in Suning Holdings Group, 65% stake in Suning Real Estate as well as 48.1% stake in Suning Appliance Group as the second largest shareholder. His company also holds the majority of shares of Italian football club Inter Milan. He was also the managing director and general manager of Suning Holdings Group, chairman of Suning.com.
Biography
Zhang Jindong was born in Tianchang, Anhui Province in 1963. He graduated from Chinese department at Nanjing Normal University. Zhang Jindong together with his older brother Zhang Guiping opened a shop on Ninghai Road corner Jiangsu Road in Nanjing, selling air conditioning and related products in 1990. The brand Suning came from choosing one word each from Jiang-su and Ning-hai; the roads themselves were named after the city and province of the same name. Later Zhang Guiping exited the business and shifted into real estate, now known as Suning Universal. Zhang Jindong did however, also start his own real estate company Suning Real Estate some time later. Zhang Jindong further developed his small shop into a business group, the Suning Group, within 15 years. He also founded and co-founded Suning Holdings Group and Suning Appliance Group respectively, as unlisted portions of his collection of businesses, leaving Suning.com as the only listing company. In 2013's Hurun Report's China Rich List, Zhang was ranked No.9 with $6.4 billion. Zhang Jindong was ranked 28th in 2015 Forbes's China Rich List. He was also elected to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a senior governmental body. He was a member of the Provincial, but not a member of the National People's Congress. On June 6, 2016, Zhang Jindong, via his own private holding company Suning Holdings Group, signed a contract to purchase the majority stake in Italian football club Inter Milan, by purchasing existing shares and through recapitalization. The deal was approved by the extraordinary general meeting on June 28, 2016, which after the deal, Suning Holdings Group owned 68.55% shares.
Personal life
He is the father of Zhang Kangyang who is a member of the board of directors of Inter Milan; Zhang Jindong is not himself a member of the board. Steven personally owns 10% stake in Suning Real Estate, one of the companies within his father's collection of businesses. Steven became the chairman of Inter Milan on October 26, 2018.
