Neil Shen has quite the entrepreneurial pedigree. The renowned investor founded Sequoia China in 2005; its parent company, Sequoia Capital, is the most revered of Silicon Valley venture capital firms. As Sequoia China’s managing partner, Shen is famous for getting involved with the most promising new companies on the ground floor, and his firm has invested in more than 1,000 companies since then, including many of China’s best-known names, about 60 of which have become unicorns. In June 2023 Sequoia Capital announced its plans to split off its China arm into its own independent entity, now known as HongShan.

Before founding the firm, Shen was a successful entrepreneur himself, twice: first as co-founder of Ctrip.com, now Trip.com, which has become China’s most popular travel site; and as co-founder of Home Inns, China’s largest budget hotel chain. He previously worked as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank Hong Kong, Chemical Bank, Lehman Brothers and Citibank. He is a director of companies including BTG Hotels, mega app Meituan, wealth management service provider Noah Holdings and online agricultural marketplace Pinduoduo.

He also serves a number of public and philanthropic organisations, and in 2022 was the only venture capital delegate at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, where he urged investing in technologies that would help Beijing meet its climate goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2060.