1997-200 1 as an unofficial member of the Executive Council of the Hong Kong Government.
On May 2, 200 1, he became the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong. He was hired as finance minister with a three-year contract. He abandoned business and went into politics. After taking over the post of Financial Secretary, Antony Leung received the salary of Directorate Grade 9, with an annual salary of about 2.45 million yuan, which was nearly 20 million yuan lower than the existing salary, with a drop of nearly 90%. In this regard, Liang Jinsong has his own set of views: "Everyone knows that the salary of senior government officials is far from that of senior business officials, but a person's money is limited. I believe in a word, the money earned is not yours, but the money used is yours. A person doesn't need much money. "
On the evening of July 16, 2003, Antony Leung resigned as Financial Secretary for personal reasons, and issued a resignation statement that night: "I believe it is a good time for me to leave my job for three reasons: First, the appropriation bill and the major revenue proposals in the budget have been passed by the Legislative Council; Second, atypical pneumonia was controlled, measures to rebuild economic vitality began to be implemented, and the recovery of the industries most affected was stronger than expected; Third, the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between the Mainland and Hong Kong has taken a successful step. I am glad to have the opportunity to serve the people of Hong Kong. In the meantime, I have a clear conscience in doing anything at any time. As a member of the leadership team of the Chief Executive, I am deeply honored. I sincerely wish the Chief Executive great success in governing Hong Kong and realizing Hong Kong's economic transformation. "
After resigning, Liang joined Blackstone Group in 2007 as Chairman of Greater China.
2065438+joined Nanfeng Group in February 2004 as the newly established CEO. Liang Jinsong is straightforward, and Donald Tsang, who took office with him at the same time, occasionally has a situation of "Mars hitting the earth", but "everyone only pays attention to things, not people".
He said: "I have worked with Donald Tsang for six years. Sometimes we are both very warm and have different opinions, but if we agree, everyone will run away."
He bluntly said that he had no ambition to be the chief executive. He even thought that when he stopped being the Financial Secretary in his fifties, he could teach, join some boards of directors and even set up a consulting company with friends to help some developing Asian enterprises explore the international market. He said: "You can broaden your horizons without making money."
He was born in poverty, but he became the champion of the college entrance examination from the edge of almost repeating a grade; He worships Mao Zedong crazily and has been to Jinggangshan. He is the first Chinese in the banking industry in Hong Kong. He once refused to be the second-in-command of one of the largest banks in the world because of Hong Kong. He gave up the sky-high annual salary of 25 million and took over as Hong Kong Financial Secretary with an annual salary of only 2.4 million. He is Liang Jinsong, a legendary hero. Liang Jinsong, a working emperor destined to be the leader of China since he was a child, a highly respected financial expert and the god of wealth in the world's third largest financial center. Liang Jinsong was born in 1952, and his family was poor. His father works as a waiter in a restaurant, and there are nine brothers and sisters at home. However, Huaying College, where he attended, is very famous and has trained countless Hong Kong and Chinese elites. Although Liang Jinsong was very clever in middle school, he was so playful that he was almost expelled from school: he only got 13 in the entrance exam for grade five (equivalent to our current grade two), and it is almost certain that he will repeat the grade or drop out of school. Fortunately, his Chinese teacher Chen Yaonan and the headmaster Alice were wise enough to ensure that he was promoted to the sixth grade. In the following academic year, he studied hard all night in the school cafeteria, and one year later, he was admitted to Hong Kong University, the highest institution in Hong Kong, as the champion of liberal arts in the college entrance examination!
Many years later, when Liang Jinsong talked about this experience, he was still filled with emotion. When talking about the secret of his success, Liang Jinsong said six words: "If you know how to lose, you will win." This is also his motto. It is in this spirit that Liang Jinsong has worked in the banking industry for 28 years, becoming the most successful Chinese manager in Hong Kong's banking industry and almost becoming the vice chairman of Citibank in the United States.
Liang Jinsong majored in economics and statistics during his college years (he later completed the management development course and advanced management course of Harvard Business School in 1982 and 1999). When he was young, he had shown extraordinary organizational and leadership skills. In addition to his excellent academic performance, he also served as the president of the Student Union of the University of Hong Kong (his ex-wife Tan Shufen was also an alumnus of the University of Hong Kong and was then an officer of the Student Union). He was very active in the University of Hong Kong. He advocated the root-seeking movement in those days and pursued the cultural blood of Hong Kong and China.
With his outstanding talent, Liang Jinsong was also selected to participate in the "Navigation Academy" founded by the late Dong Haoyun, the king of port ships (the father of Mr. Tung Chee-hwa). He spent a whole semester on a cruise ship, traveling around the world with the ship, broadening his horizons and increasing his knowledge. His sharpness also left a deep impression on Tung Chee-hwa, who had just met at that time. After graduation, Liang Jinsong joined Citibank Hong Kong Branch and became the first batch of Hong Kong local college students employed by the most famous bank in the world. But he soon showed his talent and worked very hard. Two years after joining the company, he was appointed by the company to receive foreign exchange trading training in the Philippines and became the first generation of foreign exchange trading experts in Hong Kong. His bold and prudent judgment made him invincible in foreign exchange trading, becoming a rare "ever-victorious general" and earning a lot of money for Citibank. Since then, it has soared and become the key training object of Citibank. 1982 was "sent" to the United States and completed the management development course of Harvard University.
Since then, Liang Jinsong has been sent to new york, Singapore, Manila and other regions to hold important positions in bank management. His business includes enterprise, real estate and trade financing, foreign exchange and stock trading, private banking, project loans and fund management. And he knows all kinds of banking business like the back of his hand, so he is a rare generalist and expert in the financial field. From 65438 to 0992, Liang Jinsong was promoted to the position of President of Citibank, which made countless China people proud. 1996, Citibank invited him to new york to be the vice chairman of the head office of Citibank, provided that he immigrated to the United States. Liang Jinsong made another shocking move: he flatly refused to leave Hong Kong for the sake of high officials and high salaries. It is estimated that his annual salary and company dividends at that time exceeded 3 million US dollars (more than 23 million Hong Kong dollars), and he was a veritable working emperor.
Liang Jinsong's departure from Citibank triggered a battle for talents. In the end, he chose Chase Manhattan Bank as the managing director of Greater China and the Philippines, and later he was promoted to the Asia-Pacific Chairman of Bank of JPMorgan Chase. Liang Jinsong is the highest-ranking Chinese executive in Hong Kong's banking industry. He has worked in Citigroup and Chase Bank successively.
It is worth mentioning that Liang Jinsong has also made great contributions to the training of financial professionals in China Mainland: since the late 1980s, Liang Jinsong has been in charge of Citibank's affairs in China Mainland. Although other foreign banks are still reluctant to cooperate with Chinese banks, Citigroup, which is trying to reopen its China office, is ahead of the times and has provided credit lines for many Chinese banks. Under Liang Jinsong's arrangement, Citibank organized many financial training courses for the mainland, which just gave a very good opportunity to officials of financial departments such as the People's Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance, who urgently needed to increase their contact with the international market. It is said that many independent financial officials in mainland China have listened to Liang Jinsong's own lectures at Citigroup today. Liang Jinsong has not only made outstanding achievements in banking, but also had smooth sailing in politics. He used to be Chairman of the University of Hong Kong Grants Committee, Director of the Airport Authority and Director of the Hong Kong Futures Exchange. What really made him familiar in politics was that he took over as the chairman of the University Appropriations Committee in the early 1990s, and worked for eight years at a time. The current chairman of the Education Commission strongly advocates the implementation of the language benchmark test and the abolition of the academic aptitude test, which has brought about earth-shaking changes to the education system in Hong Kong. He hit the nail on the head when he criticized the remarks of "high scores and low abilities" in the academic ability test, which fully demonstrated his outspoken personality and resolute work style. It is no wonder that on May 2nd, 20001year, when Antony Leung jumped from a civil servant to one of the important leaders of the Hong Kong SAR Government (this is also the first person in Hong Kong), he was not controversial but cheered in Hong Kong. A senior banker familiar with Liang Jinsong said that Liang Jinsong is the best candidate to succeed the "master of finance". He is familiar with Hong Kong's financial market, has rich financial knowledge and administrative experience, has deep feelings for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the whole country, and is strong and persistent, and will not easily change his position because of outside opinions.
The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, the American General Chamber of Commerce and the British Chamber of Commerce all welcomed the appointment of Antony Leung. Weng Yideng, president of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, said that the appointment of Antony Leung "can maintain the confidence of the Hong Kong business community". The Bank of JPMorgan Chase, where he works, even issued a statement praising Liang Jinsong as "a brilliant and outstanding banker who played an outstanding leading role in company management. At the same time, he is convinced that Antony Leung's courage, integrity and loyalty to Hong Kong and China will give full play to his strengths in his new post. 」。 Liang Jinsong publicly stated that he wanted to improve the adaptability of the lower classes in Hong Kong and make himself popular with most Hong Kong people.
More importantly, Liang Jinsong conquered Hong Kong people with practical actions. After becoming the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, he will receive an annual salary of D9, about HK$ 2.45 million, which is only 65,438+00% of the original annual salary! Liang Jinsong has a wonderful theory about this: "The money a person spends is limited, and I believe the sentence' The money earned is not yours, but the money spent is yours'. A person won't spend a lot of money, so money has never been my consideration. " But more people understand that this is more due to his strong Chinese knot and Hong Kong complex.
At the end of 2008, Liang Jinsong pointed out in his speech at the Fortune Global Forum: "After the return of Hong Kong in 1997 and the Asian financial turmoil, Hong Kong remains the most important financial and commercial center in Asia." At the 8th APEC Finance Ministers Meeting, he still emphasized this view. He believes that with the strengthening of Asian economic cooperation and China's imminent accession to the World Trade Organization, Hong Kong's advantages as a financial and commercial center in Asia will become more and more prominent. He compared Hong Kong with Manhattan, the commercial and financial center of the United States, saying that Hong Kong is the "Manhattan" of China. He was named one of the top ten financial figures in the world in 20001year by Fortune magazine in recognition of his "outstanding contribution to promoting Hong Kong's economic development in times of crisis".