Ma Mingzhe

Founding of Ping An Insurance and early career

Ma has worked in the insurance industry for his entire career. In the mid-1980s, Ma worked as a young assistant manager at China Merchants Group's social security office in Shenzhen's Shekou district. He persuaded senior executive Yuan Geng, who later retired as group vice chairman, to allow him to explore the possibility of helping the state-owned trading house set up an insurance unit. Ma then steered China Merchants' entry into the insurance business, establishing Ping An, China's first life insurer modeled after the West, in 1988.

Ma recruited insurance industry executives from Taiwan and Hong Kong, bringing them to Shekou, then a burgeoning port district of Shenzhen, to help him set up an insurance company modeled on those in the West.

In his book, Ping'an Xin Yu, or "Ping An's Language of the Heart," Ma presents a collection of essays about the firm's history, written by him and his team. They recount how they created modern insurance sales and management strategies tailor-made for China. The book references Confucius as the individual who embodies the best of traditional Chinese philosophers and Albert Einstein as the best in Western scientific philosophy.

Ma received his doctorate degree in Money and Banking from Zhongan University of Economics and Law.

In 2007, Ma Mingzhe and his family donated RMB 20 million (USD 2.66 million) to set up the Mingyuan Foundation under the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation. The donation increased to RMB 100 million (USD 13.3 million) in 2012.