Jie Chen started his mining and management career in 1979 with a large Chinese state-owned coal mining enterprise in China. He was chair of the Shandong Taishan Sunlight Group Company (Shandong Group) since 2002. Under his leadership, Shandong Group formed three vertically integrated businesses in coal, iron ore mining, processing and manufacturing with operations in Shandong, Guizhou, Ningxia and Xinjiang. Mr Chen holds a Masters in Economics and has received several distinguished awards at provincial and national levels for various achievements including being in the 10 excellent entrepreneurs in Shandong Province, top 20 mine managers in China, and China’s excellent entrepreneur.