Zhong Shanshan is a billionaire whose net worth surged from $70.9 billion this year to $77.8 billion making him Asia’s richest man and the 11th richest person on the planet. He has overtaken India’s Mukesh Ambani who was the former richest man in Asia. His career span across journalism, mushroom farming and health care. Zhong’s accumulation of wealth is one of the fastest in history and until this year, he was little known outside of China. Zhong is 66 years old and is known locally as the ”Lone Wolf”.
He is not involved in politics and he owes his success to two unrelated fields. He took vaccine maker Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise Co in April and also acquired Nongfu Spring Co, a maker of bottled water. Nongfu shares have jumped 155% since their debut and Wantai’s are up more than 2000 %.India’s Mukesh Ambani saw his fortune surge $18.3 billion to $76.9 billion after some striking deals to transform his conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. .Zhong’s firm Wantai is developing a Covid- 19 vaccine. He has also overtaken Jack Ma who was Asia’s richest person before Ambani took over this year.
