Lu Guanqiu

Lu Guanqiu — founder profiled in the Chinese Founder Ledger — is documented as follows: peasant-born former ironsmith who co-founded a small agricultural-machinery factory with six other farmers in 1969 and built it into Wanxiang Group, a major auto-parts and components conglomerate, leading the company until his death in October 2017. The profile is grounded in the 2 sources indexed for this founder.

Lu Guanqiu's role is documented as: founder and President of the Board, Wanxiang Group Deceased October 25, 2017, aged 72, per Wikipedia's biography (research date: 2026-08-23).

Lu was born into a peasant family, dropped out of school at 15, and worked as an ironsmith before co-founding a small factory with six other farmers in July 1969 to produce small agricultural machines.

Lu grew the original agricultural-machinery workshop into Wanxiang Group, a large manufacturing conglomerate and leading producer of automobile components, while also serving as a part-time EMBA professor at Zhejiang University.

33 on the Forbes China Rich List with an estimated 13.13 billion yuan (about $1.87 billion) -- and was reported as the richest person in Zhejiang Province.

Co-founded a small agricultural-machinery factory with six other farmers in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou in July 1969.

The factory developed into Wanxiang Group, a large manufacturing conglomerate and a leading global producer of automobile components, with Lu remaining president of the board until his death in 2017.