Mary Ma | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||
| Born | Ma Xuezheng 1952 or 1953 | ||||||||||
| Died | 31 August 2019 (aged 66) | ||||||||||
| Education | Capital Normal University, University of London | ||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Businesswoman, investor | ||||||||||
| Known for | Orchestrating Lenovo's acquisition ofIBM's PC division | ||||||||||
| Title | CFO ofLenovo (2000-2007) | ||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 馬雪征 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 马雪征 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Mary Ma orMa Xuezheng (Chinese:马雪征; 1952 or 1953 – 31 August 2019) was a Chinese businesswoman and investor. She served aschief financial officer of the computer makerLenovo, and played a key role in the company's acquisition ofIBM's personal computer division in 2005. She was named byForbes as the world's 57th most powerful woman in that year. After retiring from Lenovo in 2007, she worked in private equity and co-foundedBoyu Capital, which invested in companies includingAlibaba Group andMegvii.
Ma Xuezheng was born in 1952 or 1953. She graduated fromCapital Normal University in 1976, one of the few college graduates during theCultural Revolution. She later studied at theUniversity of London in England.[1]
After returning to China, she worked for 12 years at theChinese Academy of Sciences, and served as an interpreter for Chinese national leaders, includingDeng Xiaoping[1] andHu Yaobang.[2]
In 1988, Ma metLiu Chuanzhi, the founder and CEO of the computer company Legend (nowLenovo), for the first time, and was impressed by his vision and management style. Two years later, she quit her government job to join Legend as the assistant general manager of its Hong Kong branch.[1]
By 1997, Ma had risen to the position of deputy general manager of Legend Holdings.[3] In that year, Ma proposed to implementemployee stock ownership for Legend, which was unprecedented for a Chinese company. Liu accepted her proposal and further broadened it to cover all employees of Legend, which numbered several thousand at the time.[1] Legend's employee ownership has been credited with helping the company weather the major downturn of thedotcom crash in 2000, and Ma was promoted tochief financial officer.[1]
In 2005, Ma orchestrated Lenovo's acquisition ofIBM's personal computer division,[4] includingThinkPad andThinkCentre. The US$1.75 billion deal quadrupled Lenovo's size overnight and turned the largely domestically oriented company into the world's third-largest computer maker.[5] In that year,Forbes named her as one of the world's 100 most powerful women at number 57.[5] Lenovo has since grown into the world's largest PC maker in 2019, with a quarter of the global market share.[3]
In 2006, Ma was involved in negotiating Lenovo's sponsorship deal for the2006 Winter Olympics inTurin; it was the first time a Chinese company had sponsored a major global sports event.[3]
Ma retired from Lenovo in 2007, but continued to serve as anon-executive director.[3] She joined theprivate equity companyTPG, and later co-founded her own investment firmBoyu Capital (博裕资本) in 2011.[4] Boyu raised close to US$10 billion, and invested in major companies and startups includingAlibaba Group,NetEase Music, LY.com, Easyhome, andMegvii.[1][4]
In March 2019, Ma was appointed an independent director of the board ofHong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, which operates theHong Kong Stock Exchange. She was also a non-executive director ofUnilever[3] andSwire Pacific.[2]
On 31 August 2019, Ma died frompancreatic cancer at the age of 66.[4]