Ren Jianxin on Founding and Origins

Ren Jianxin — founder profiled in the Chinese Founder Ledger — is documented as follows: founded Bluestar, a small industrial-solvents factory, in 1984 with a RMB 10,000 loan and seven employees, then from 1996 built the state-owned ChemChina empire by taking control of more than 100 troubled, government-owned chemical factories across China, later leading ChemChina's $43 billion acquisition of Swiss agribusiness giant Syngenta and taking the chairmanship of Italian tire maker Pirelli. The profile is grounded in the 1 sources indexed for this founder.

Ren Jianxin was born in Lanzhou, Gansu Province in January 1958, of Hebei ancestry; during the Cultural Revolution he worked as a 'sent-down youth' in Dunhuang from 1974-1975, then worked at the Lanzhou Chemical Machinery Research Institute from 1975-1984, later earning a mechanical engineering degree from the Open University of China and an MBA from Lanzhou University (1994).

In 1984, Ren used a loan of RMB 10,000 and seven young employees to start Bluestar Company, an industrial solvents factory, which later became China National Bluestar (Group) Company, a joint venture with the Blackstone Group.

Founded Bluestar in 1984 as a small industrial-solvents factory and grew it into China National Bluestar Group.