Shen Wenrong, chairman and CEO of Jiangsu Shagang Group, was born in 1946 in the city of Zhangjiagang, in southern Jiangsu province.

In 1984, Shen Wenrong took over a steel factory. After taking control, he reduced the factory’s product lines to focus on steel sashes. By 1988, the factory’s production reached 130,000 tons and occupied 60 percent of the domestic market.

By the end of 1988, Shen Wenrong invested all the factory’s funds to buy a 75-ton ultra-high power electric steelmaking furnace from Britain. Shortly after the project was put into operation in 1992, China ushered in a peak period of infrastructure development, which contributed to recoupment of the 300 million yuan investment in less than three years.

In 2002, the Shagang spent 220 million yuan buying the subsidiary Huo Shi Steel from Europe's largest steel company ThyssenKrupp, helping Shagang’s capacity reach 10 million tons. The deal was the most important turning point in the history of Shagang, which would later become China’s first-class iron and steel enterprise.

Shen continues to work at least 10 hours every day. As his wife says, tinkering with iron and steel has become his greatest interest.