The first recipients of the Fortune CEO Lifetime Achievement Award are three incumbent CEOs – Sir Henry Keswick, Mr. Zhiping Song, and Mr. Gaoning Ning. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

More than 300 CEOs and representatives from Fortune Global 500 Companies and leading Chinese enterprises attended the 2018 Fortune China CEO Summit on September 5 and 6 in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China.

This year’s theme is Science, Technology, and Growth, with six panel discussions including Indigenous R&D, Artificial Intelligence, Beyond Globalization 2.0, Strategic Finance, etc. “The emerging trends among Chinese companies so far this year reverberates around two features – returning to value investing and value investment, refocusing on business cores and specialties”, indicated by Mr. Chijin Liu, the executive chairman of the event at the opening ceremony.

According to Fortune magazine, 120 Chinese companies are on this year’s Fortune Global Company List, while the US and Japan has 126 and 54 companies on the list respectively.

“Fortune CEO Lifetime Achievement Award” was debuted over this year’s Fortune China CEO Summit. A seven-grid assessment criteria are used to select the award winners, including a minimum 30-year management career with track record in growing FG 500 companies, indisputable contribution in leading industry changes or profit model innovations. The first recipients of the award are three incumbent CEOs – Sir Henry Keswick, Mr. Zhiping Song, and Mr. Gaoning Ning. Sir Henry Keswick, Chairman of the Jardine & Matheson Holdings Limited, has delivered a stellar investment record – 21% annual compound return rate in shareholder equity value through his multi-industry, diversified investments in Asia, for a firm which survived and thrived over 186 years of history. Mr. Song, the incumbent Chairman of CNBM (the world’s largest construction and engineering materials company) who had built and managed simultaneously two FG 500 companies between 2009 -2014, integrated and restructured more than 1,000 smaller firms via massive M&As. Mr. Ning has successfully growed and managed four FG 500 companies, including China Resources Holdings in Hong Kong, COFCO, and presently SinoChem Group and ChinaChem.