WWR Staff
New York
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Jean Liu is making a name for herself as one of the leading women in business in Asia. As the president of Didi (Uber’s main competitior in China) she leads the largest taxi-hailing app in the world.
New York
Jean Liu, president of Didi, China’s largest ride-sharing app was name one of Fast Company Magazine’s 100 Most Creative People in Business for 2016. Liu, was ranked #4 on the list, “for building China’s largest ride-sharing business at breathtaking speed”
At Didi, Liu leads the company which works with more than 14 million drivers in 400 Chinese cities. 300 million Didi users place 11 million ride orders a day.
The annual rankings honor an influential and diverse group of leading thinkers around the globe. Earning the No. 1 spot on the list this year is Lin-Manuel Miranda, the composer, lyricist, and star of Broadway’s “cultural and financial force” Hamilton.
Liu is the daughter of the founder of Lenovo Liu Chuanzhi. A graduate of Harvard, she worked for Goldman Sachs for 12 years before joining Didi Dache, which, according to Fast Company, she quickly merged with Didi Kuadi, its largest competitor.
In the battle against Uber for China’s e-hail market, Liu has engineered a number of partnerships with companies likes Singapore’s Grab, India’s Ola Cabs and Lyft. Just last week Apple announced it would be making a 1 billion dollar investment in the company.
Each year, the magazine’s editors present an all-new list of 100 visionaries chosen according to a proprietary methodology (honorees can’t repeat, and anyone previously profiled in the print magazine is excluded). The 2016 honorees hail from a vast range of industries and locales, from tech and design to entertainment, media, government and nonprofit, health care, and food, and they span the world from India to Costa Rica, Turkey, and Nigeria.
Other High Profile Women on the list include:
Dani Rylan, founder and commissioner, National Women’s Hockey League, “for giving women a shot” (#42)
HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, cofounder, The Maverick Collective, “for applying the VC model to philanthropy” (#92)
Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative directors, Valentino, “for turning a storied fashion house into a $1 billion juggernaut” (#5-6)
Cindy Holland, VP of original content, Netflix, “for offering viewers a lot more to binge on” (#7)
Katie Nolan, host, Garbage Time With Katie Nolan, “for shaking up sports” (#12)
Divya Nag, health tech lead, Apple, “for moving Apple into the doctor’s office” (#2)
Jill Soloway, founder, Topple Productions, “for televising the revolution” (#3)
The full list is available here: http://www.fastcompany.com/most-creative-people/2016
