Mr. Yichen ZHANG, born in 1963, is the Chairman and CEO of CITIC Capital Holdings Limited. He is the Chairman of McDonald's master franchised business in China & Hong Kong, the Chairman of Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Holding Company, as well as the Chairman of GNC. He also sits on the boards of HKEX, Vanke, and AsiaInfo.
Mr. Zhang obtained his degree in Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was Managing Director of Debt Capital Market for Greater China of Merrill Lynch, and President of CITIC Pacific Communications and Executive Director for CITIC Pacific (now CITIC Limited). He founded CITIC Capital in 2002.Under his leadership, CITIC Capital has led a number of landmark deals, investing in some of China’s leading companies, including McDonald’s China, Alibaba, Sina, Harbin Pharmaceutical, SF Express, AsiaInfo and Focus Media.
Mr. Zhang has been supporting Phillips Academy Andover as a trustee, New York Juilliard School as advisory board member, Yale Asia Development Council as a council member, and he is also a member of the Board of Trustees at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, advisory board member of Duke Kunshan University, Senior Vice Chairman of Center for China and Globalization (CCG), and advisory board member of the Tianjin Juilliard School. He is a member of the Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).