Chen Tianqiao

Chen was born in 1973[1] in a city in the Zhejiang Province, China.[10] With his father working as an engineer and his mother teaching middle school English, Chen and his younger brother Danian grew up near Shanghai. In 1993[6] He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Fudan University.[8]

Chen joined the state-run property developer Shanghai Lujiazui Group in 1994, holding management positions[8] in the public relations office and also secretary of the chairman.[6] In 1998 he became vice director of the office of the president of Kinghing Trust & Investment.[8] Chen resigned from this role in 1999.[6]

He started Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited as an online games company with his family in 1999.[3][6] He became board president. Shanda Interactive became the first Chinese online games company listed in the U.S. on Nasdaq in May 2004. Shanda is known for creating and promoting a freemium model for online games subscription in China.

The company became the largest Internet company in China by market capitalization in 2004.[11] In 2004 Chen was second on China's Hurun Review rich list.[12]

China Central Television voted him their leading "Rising Business Star."[10] He was put on the 100 Innovators Under 35 list put out by the MIT Technology Review.[13]

Shanda Group went private in early 2012, with Chen, his wife, and his brother keeping a combined 57% stake.[6]

Tianqiao Chen and his family sold all their stakes in Shanda Games in November 2014, after which Shanda Group refocused on investing.[10]

With Chen remaining chairman[5] and CEO, by early 2017 Shanda Group was the majority shareholder of Legg Mason, Lending Club,[2] and Community Health Systems.[14][15] It also had property operations in China and North America[2] and stakes in companies such as Sotheby's. Shanda sold its stakes in Sotheby's in 2017[3] and then it sold its stake Legg Mason later that year, and then Chen resigned as vice-chairman of the Legg Mason board.[4] Chen has invested in the venture funds Propel(x) and Ubiquity Ventures.[16]

Ranked on various rich lists,[8][17] Chen personally had $4 billion in net value in 2017 and was ranked as the 93rd richest person in China, according to the Hurun Report.[7][18]

In 2018, the Committee of 100 gave Chen an award for Lifetime Achievement as Tech Entrepreneur.[19]

Chen is chairman of the Shanda Group,[5] and is also on the boards of various portfolio companies.[4][20] Chen is married to Qianqian "Chrissy" Luo [6] who in 2022 joined the Board of Governors of the Huntington Library and Gardens [21] and the Board of Trustees of the California Academy of Sciences.[22] She is also a member of the China Leadership Board at the 21st Century China Center at University of California, San Diego.[23]

Chen and his wife have donated money to medical programs, education, and disaster relief in China and Mongolia.[24] Chen and his wife created the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute in 2016,[9] and set aside US $1 billion to the non-profit[25] to support fundamental brain research.[26] The non-profit has funded and partnered with the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech,[9][25] and the Zhou Liangu Foundation and Huashan Hospital in Shanghai.[9] The couple was named Inside Philanthropy's 2017 Science Funders of the Year,[27] and that same year Chen was named one of Forbes Asia’s Heroes of Philanthropy.[28] According to Barron's, the Chens as of 2019 were dedicating much of their time to the institute, with a focus on "compiling data gathered from universities on post-doc programs into a white paper that should allow them to better understand the challenges postdocs face, including pressures to leave for industry." After the post-doctoral focus and a second documentary, Chen wanted the institute to "facilitate the integration of neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and even religion" to study "who we are" as humans.[16]

Chen and his wife Qianqian "Chrissy" Luo.[6] moved from Shanghai[8] to Singapore in 2009,[1] then from Singapore to the Bay Area of California in late 2017.[9] They are currently residents of Menlo Park, California.[29] Chen bought in 2018 for $39 million a historic mansion built for Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt in 1881 on East 69th Street in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.[30][31]