Ren Zhengfei on Founding and Origins

Ren Zhengfei — founder profiled in the Chinese Founder Ledger — is documented as follows: former People's Liberation Army engineer who founded Huawei in Shenzhen in 1987 with 21,000 yuan in capital and has served as its CEO continuously since 1988, building it into the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker. The profile is grounded in the 3 sources indexed for this founder.

Ren was born into a rural teaching family in Guizhou, studied civil engineering, then joined the PLA's Engineering Corps in 1974 to help build the Liaoyang Chemical Fiber Factory, rising to a deputy-regimental-equivalent technical role before the Corps was disbanded in 1983.

After leaving the military and working briefly for a Shenzhen oil-logistics company, Ren founded Huawei in September 1987 with registered capital of 21,000 yuan, reportedly out of dissatisfaction with his prior job.

Founded Huawei Technologies in Shenzhen in September 1987 as a private telecommunications equipment reseller/manufacturer.