Forbes China’s 2013 50 Top Venture Capitalists: EMBA Alumni Liu Erhai and York Chen Once Again Selected

Jan 31-2014   

At the end of 2013, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) gave its approval to five Chinese companies to release their IPO prospectuses, thus ending a 14-month freeze on A-Share IPOs and signaling a recovery for Venture Capital (VC) and Private Equity (PE).

Against this backdrop, Forbes published its league table of 2013 China Top Venture Capitalists. Fifty venture capitalists outperformed the fluctuating market through their focus, determination and unique perspective, leading the future development of Chinese venture capital.

Amongst these 50 top performers, two National School of Development alumni once again stand out: Liu Erhai, 2001 EMBA Alumni, Managing Director of Legend Capital, and York Chen, 2002 EMBA Alumni, Founding Managing Partner of iD TechVentures.

Erhai Liu: Venture Capitalist Integrating Knowledge and Action

"Erhai Liu is focused on TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunication). In his eyes, a developing country like China not only provides great prospects in the high-tech industry, but also provides huge potential in traditional industries if they are able to improve their management. " (Forbes)

Erhai Liu made the Forbes 2012 ‘Top Global Venture Capitalist List’ for his successful investments in Renren and BitAuto. The List included famous venture capitalists all over the world, covering the hottest investment fields including Internet Safety, social media, e-business, videos, video-games, cloud computing, mobile advertising and many others. Top three in the 2013 List are Jim Breyer, Marc Andreessen and Reid Hoffman whose investments in Facebook, Skype and Linkedin respectively, led the trend in global internet startup and investment.

In keeping with his interest for supplementing traditional industries with high-tech, Erhai Liu also invested in China Auto Rental, Pod Inns, and 21Cake, which brought operational innovation into these traditional industries (cars, hotels and food & beverage respectively). It is worth noting that the above three enterprises were also established by EMBA alumni of National School of Development. Trust and common values shared by alumni created more opportunities for them to share the future together.

As one of the EMBA alumni who best embodies "Knowledge and Action in One", Erhai Liu took his EMBA course in the National School of Development at Peking University in 2001, and then joined in Legend Capital (previously Lenovo Investments) as a brand new start for his career. For many years, Erhai Liu has been recognized as one of the "Best Venture Capitalists" by several famous media outlets and authorities. Liu Erhai and Legend Capital received unanimous praise in CBN Week’s "Most Popular Investment Houses for Entrepreneurs" and Mr. Liu gained "Favorite Business Partner" for his deep understanding and support for entrepreneurs. The Entrepreneur, an influential magazine in the industry, awarded Erhai Liu "Most Trustworthy Venture Capitalist" in a poll among the active group of business founders.

Despite his great achievement in finance, Erhai Liu returned to his Alma Mater in 2013, 10 years after his graduation, to participate in the Master of Science in Global Finance (MSCF) co-hosted with New York’s Fordham University, and received the Master’s Degree of Global Finance awarded by Fordham University. As an outstanding alumni in the Venture Capital industry, Erhai Liu frequently visits Langrun Garden to lecture on the investment field’s latest trends and his investment philosophy to MBA and EMBA alumni.

York Chen: A Public-Minded VC Preacher

 

"York Chen successfully invested in several high-tech firms and is optimistic of high-tech industry for high growth. He advocates building long-term strategic partnership with the invested firms and assisting in the post-investment management." (Forbes)

Looking through previous Forbes China “Top Venture Capitalists” lists, one can see the "Venture Capital Preacher" for 6 consecutive years from 2008 to 2013. Valuing his excellent practice in venture capital, National School of Development invited this former student as professor to "preach" in Langrun Garden. In his four-day course on "The General Trend of Chinese Venture Capital and Enterprise Financing", York Chen introduced an innovative case study method from Harvard Business School to guide MBA students in divergent thinking, which received great popularity and recognition.

York Chen does not only give his care and attention to growing enterprises and MBA students, but also to the growth and development of children. He is active in charity and public welfare and promoted, through the platform of National School of Development at Peking University the “Yanxing China” initiative.

Yanxing China is a charity organization initiated by EMBA 2002 in National School of Development at Peking University (the class York Chen previous studied in) which focuses on subsidizing those students with excellent academic skills and character but come from poor family in rural and mountainous area. Up to now, the organization has helped over 2,000 poverty stricken students in Peking University, Tsinghua University, People's University, Beijing Normal University, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Southeast University, Nanjing University, and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.)