Zhang Yichen is the Chairman and CEO of CITIC Capital Holdings Limited. Mr. Zhang began his career on Wall Street in 1987 at Greenwich Capital Markets. He later joined Bank of Tokyo as Head of Proprietary Trading, and Merrill Lynch as Managing Director of Debt Capital Market for Greater China. In 2000, he joined CITIC Group as the President of CITIC Pacific Communications and Executive Director for CITIC Pacific (now CITIC Limited). He founded CITIC Capital in 2002 and has been involved in all phases of the firm’s development since then. Under his leadership, CITIC Capital has led a number of landmark deals, investing in some of China’s leading companies, including McDonald’s China, Alibaba, Sina, Harbin Pharmaceutical, SF Express, AsiaInfo and Focus Media. He is the Chairman of McDonald’s master franchised business in China & Hong Kong, the Chairman of Harbin Pharmaceutical Group Holding Company, as well as the Chairman of GNC. He also sits on the boards of HKEX, Vanke, AsiaInfo, and SF Express. 

Mr Zhang obtained his degree in Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.