Dong Mingzhu (董明珠)

 Company: Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliances Inc. (珠海格力電器股份有限公司)

Headquarters: Guangdong

Main focus: Household appliances

Title: President and vice-chairwoman

Age: 58

2011 Rank: 2

When Dong Mingzhu started working for Gree in 1990, she was just a salesman, and Gree was only a local company. Over the past 20 years, Dong rose from salesman to sales manager, eventually becoming sales director, general manager, and finally president and vice-chairwoman. The company is now one of the largest household appliances producers in China, and the largest manufacturer of residential air conditioning units in the world.

In 1996, Gree was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In 2011, the company achieved total sales revenues of 83.51 billion yuan (US$13.38 billion), and by the first half of this year, its net profit had reached 5.23 billion yuan (US$839.49 million).