TRAILBLAZER
PETER MA :
The man behind China ’ s largest insurer
Aged 33 , Ma set out to create an insurance company in a rural part of China . Today , that insurer – Ping An – writes over US $ 100bn in net premiums every year
JOB TITLE : CHAIRMAN COMPANY : PING AN INSURANCE
P eter Ma Mingzhe is the current chairman and former CEO of China ’ s insurance giant , Ping An . Since graduating with a doctorate in Money and Banking from Zhongnan University of Economics and Law , Ma has spent virtually an entire career in insurance . He was the deputy manager of a large Chinese real estate company before founding the firm with which he has become synonymous .
When Ma was 33 , he started Ping An , which translates as “ peace and safety ”. Today , the city of Shenzhen is a major financial hub , but in 1988 it was an outpost in a largely agricultural area . With founding capital of 42mn yuan ( just over US $ 11mn at the time ), Ping An became the first joint-stock insurance company ever in China . Its initial products included property , transport freight and liability insurance products .
Life insurance would become one of the kingpins of the firm ’ s growth – but it was slow to get off the ground . China has a longstanding cultural taboo related to talking about death , so it wasn ’ t until 1996 when Ping An ’ s first life insurance policy was signed . The company was only able to sell life insurance to Chinese consumers by framing it in the context of saving , and not in the context of dying .
Over the next 25 years , Ma led Ping An through rapid growth . Last year , the group revealed that it had over 220 million retail customers and more than 600 million website users . It is one of the world ’ s largest insurance companies , second only to UnitedHealth in terms of net premiums written .
A man with an understated reputation Ma himself is a man with a reputation for operating discreetly and under the radar – reserved , astute and politically shrewd . After all , he built an empire from selling life insurance in a country where talking about death
16 July 2022