Who's Who in Shenzhen Capital Group's New Leadership Team

By Zhiyan Chen

Recent media reports indicate that Shenzhen Capital Group (SCG) is set for a leadership transition: Chairman Ni Zewang, who has led the firm since 2015, will retire upon turning 60. Zuo Ding, currently deputy Party secretary and president of the group, is expected to succeed him. Meanwhile, Liu Suhua, head of Shenzhen HTI (High-Tech Investment), is seen as the likely candidate to fill Zuo's role as group president — currently undergoing organizational review.

In response, SCG stated that no definitive information is available for disclosure at this time, though the group does plan to convene a board meeting in the near future for elections and appointments, with the exact leadership transition to be confirmed based on actual proceedings.

Nine years ago, Jin Haitao — who had steered SCG for 11 years and was revered in the industry as the "Southern Emperor" — retired at 61, making way for Ni Zewang, then former Party secretary of Shenzhen's Luohu District, and ushering in a new era. In the intervening years, market capital has surged and frozen; RMB funds have moved from the margins to center stage; and investment themes have shifted from internet to industry and technology. This year marks SCG's 25th anniversary, and this representative of China's homegrown venture capital is once again passing the torch.

Legend has it that during the 2015 handover between Jin and Ni, someone asked: "What will the Ni Zewang era of SCG look like?" Ni's reply: "There will be no one person's era."

Though this anecdote is now unverifiable, and RMB funds with strong government backgrounds rarely confirm the industry adage that "the institution is an extension of the person," tracing the career paths of Zuo Ding and Liu Suhua remains worthwhile. In their trajectories, one might find clues to SCG's future direction.

Two "Parachute" Appointments

On July 3, 2019, SCG held its 47th shareholders' meeting and sixth board meeting in Shenzhen. At the meeting, Sun Dongsheng, who had worked at SCG for 18 years as president, retired at 61. His successor was Zuo Ding — who had joined SCG less than two months prior.

Records show that the "parachuted-in" Zuo was born in 1971, making him 48 at the time and 53 now. He holds an Executive MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington. In July 2000, Zuo joined the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), where he successively served as deputy division chief of the overseas listings division in the international cooperation department, division chief of the international organizations division, Party committee member and deputy detachment commander of the seventh detachment in the enforcement bureau, Party committee member and deputy commissioner of the Shenzhen special representative office, and Party committee member and deputy director of the Shenzhen CSRC bureau.

"Zuo Ding is in his prime, with extensive experience in the securities regulatory system. I am confident he will unite and lead the management team to push the group's cause to new heights," Chairman Ni Zewang stated at the meeting then.

It is not difficult to see that prior to joining SCG, Zuo's resume had two distinguishing features: first, extensive experience in the securities regulatory system; second, a certain international perspective. Compared to Sun Dongsheng, who had risen through SCG's internal ranks, Zuo clearly had a deeper understanding of policy and regulation.

Coming from a regulatory background, Zuo has maintained a relatively low profile. Since becoming SCG president, his public appearances have mostly involved visits to portfolio companies and meetings with local governments. In his rare public speeches, his topics have been "What to Invest in the Digital Age," "A Rational View of Industry Development," and "Investment and Exit Under the Full Registration System."

If Liu Suhua successfully passes organizational review to become SCG president this time, he too will become another "parachuted-in president," just as Zuo was.

Unlike Zuo, Liu Suhua — whose ancestral home is Yongxin, Jiangxi — is a true local product. He successively earned a bachelor's degree in engineering from Harbin Engineering University, a master's degree in engineering from the School of Chemical Engineering at South China University of Technology, and a Ph.D. in applied economics from the School of Economics and Finance at Xi'an Jiaotong University. He is a certified public accountant, lawyer, and certified tax agent. He previously worked at Shenzhen Neptunus Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Gaowei Union Certified Public Accountants.

In 2000, Liu joined Shenzhen HTI Group Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as "Shenzhen HTI"). Founded in December 1994, Shenzhen HTI was a specialized financial services institution established in the early 1990s by the Shenzhen municipal Party committee and government to address financing difficulties for small and medium-sized technology enterprises. Shenzhen HTI's largest shareholder is state-owned capital Shenzhen Investment Holdings Co., Ltd., holding 39.65%. This state-owned background closely resembles that of SCG, which was also established under Shenzhen municipal government leadership.

After joining Shenzhen HTI, Liu successively served as senior project manager, deputy director of the guarantee department, director of the risk management department, and director of the investment department. From December 2008 to January 2011, he served as deputy general manager of Shenzhen SME Credit Financing Guarantee Group Co., Ltd. In February 2011, Liu returned to Shenzhen HTI as deputy general manager and group general manager.

In January 2017, Shenzhen HTI held a cadre work conference, where Du Xiufeng, then division chief of the enterprise leadership personnel management division of Shenzhen's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), read out the appointment document, naming Liu Suhua as the new Party secretary and chairman of Shenzhen HTI. After taking office, his public statements focused mainly on supporting SMEs, the responsibilities of financing guarantee institutions, and investment deployment in "specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative" technology enterprises. In recent years, Liu has personally overseen Shenzhen HTI's venture capital business. In 2023, Shenzhen HTI逆势 expanded its team nationwide, recruiting and establishing local investment offices in cities including Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Changsha, and Hefei to integrate into local industrial and investment ecosystems.

Over 17 years, Liu completed his climb from entry-level employee to leader of Shenzhen HTI. And in the 24th year of his career, a new journey may be about to begin.

From President Responsibility System to Chairman Responsibility System

Dark Waves ("暗涌Waves") previously traced the early days of China's homegrown funds in detail in "Twenty Years of RMB Funds: Between Life and Death", and SCG is an unavoidable pioneer in that history.

During the 1998 Two Sessions, Cheng Siwei, then chairman of the China Democratic National Construction Association central committee, submitted "A Proposal on Accelerating the Development of China's Venture Capital Industry." This "Number One Proposal" of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) found an exit path for Chinese venture capital: the Growth Enterprise Market (GEM). Thus, under the direction of then-Shenzhen mayor Li Zibin, Zhuang Xinyi — former general manager of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange — personally took charge of establishing a venture capital fund. From the research report in May 1999 to August, a lightning-fast three months, "Shenzhen Innovation Technology Investment Co., Ltd." was formally established.

Its innate state-owned background made the question of "who will lead SCG" critical from birth, and between 2004 and 2007, an important transformation was completed.

From SCG's founding in 1999, its first two chairmen — Wang Suiming and Li Heihu — were both principal leaders of Shenzhen Investment Management Company (later "Shenzhen Investment Holdings"), and normally neither worked at SCG's offices nor involved themselves in specific operations and management. In reality, SCG at that time operated under a president responsibility system.

Initially, Shenzhen brought in Kan Zhidong — who along with Guan Jinsheng and Wei Wenyuan was known as one of "the three godfathers of China's securities industry" — as SCG's first president. At that time, Kan had left Shenyin Wanguo after being accused of "disrupting the normal order of the securities market and promoting excessive speculation in stocks" through his trading of Shanghai local stock Lujiazui. According to his own recollection, for this transfer, Shenzhen municipal executive vice mayor Li Decheng had even made a special trip to Shanghai to visit then-Shanghai executive vice mayor Chen Liangyu.

At its founding, Kan believed the primary goal was to gain shareholders' trust and support, and only then to consider growing the business. To this end, Kan established SCG's "three-stage" profit model: in the early stage, rely on short-term capital operations to achieve profitability quickly; in the medium term, focus on investment returns supplemented by fund management fees; in the long term, focus on fund management fee income supplemented by investment returns. This model was also followed by SCG for a long time thereafter.

In 2002, Kan left and recommended Chen Wei — who had been at SCG since 1999 as vice president — to succeed as president.

The third chairman, Sun Junping, had previously been a secretary in the Shenzhen municipal Party committee general office. As he did not hold a principal leadership position at Shenzhen Investment Management Company, he became SCG's first full-time chairman in its history. In August 2004, Sun left SCG, and Jin Haitao — then deputy general manager at SEG Group — succeeded him, opening the second important historical phase of SCG's development.

Jin was appointed to manage SCG in 2004 at a time of crisis: relying on its short-term profitability strategy from its first two years, SCG had increased its capital to 1.6 billion yuan, yet its outstanding entrusted wealth management funds were also roughly 1.6 billion yuan. The Shenzhen government's attitude toward SCG had long shifted from full of expectations to considering its problems "very serious." A municipal leader approached Jin Haitao and asked if he was willing to take over. Jin replied: "I would be very willing."

Thereafter, SCG also completed its transformation from a president responsibility system to a chairman responsibility system. In 2006, Chen Wei left SCG to found Oriental Fortune Capital. In 2007, Li Wanshou succeeded as SCG president. Li, who had New York study experience, had been deputy head of the preparatory group when SCG was established in 1999, and had continuously served as vice president.

During his 11 years in office, Jin Haitao led SCG in pioneering the government-guided direct investment fund model, established a nationwide fund network, and built SCG into a comprehensive financial investment group encompassing venture capital funds, public funds, and private placement funds. In 2015, constrained by the institutional mechanisms within the government system, Jin retired upon exceeding age 60, leaving the investment building where he had worked for many years. Ni Zewang was parachuted in.

A year later, Jin spearheaded the establishment of Qianhai M&A Fund in Shenzhen, raising 21.5 billion yuan. Heavyweights including Ma Weihua, Neil Shen, Xiong Xiaoge, Li Wei, and Ni Zhengdong were all co-partners, and the sole institutional partner was SCG.

In 2013, Li Wanshou left to found Co-Innovation Capital. His successor was precisely Zuo Ding's predecessor, Sun Dongsheng. Sun had early academic achievements, holding a Ph.D. in engineering from Osaka University, Japan. He joined SCG in 2001 and successively served as head of the research and planning headquarters, head of the international business headquarters, secretary-general of the investment decision committee, and group vice president. After that came the era of the Ni Zewang-Zuo Ding partnership.

In recent years, as dollar funds have faced mounting challenges, RMB funds have drawn increasing attention, scrutiny, and research. As the scales of the era tip toward RMB funds, SCG — which moved earliest, navigated the most obstacles, and achieved the most impressive results — is undoubtedly the most worthy of deep exploration. At this moment, as this local institution standing at the intersection of state capital and the market prepares to complete another generational handover, studying the secret of why SCG became SCG should logically include the dimension of "people."

Image source | IC photo

Layout | Jiaxiang Shi