Xie Qihua hails from Shanghai where she was born in 1943. After graduation from Tsinghua University in 1968, she went to work as a technician at the Shaanxi Steel Plant.

In October 1978, Xie joined Baosteel when it was still under construction, heading up the technical division, rising through the ranks to become company president in 1994 and part-time board chairperson of Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. in 2000. Since February 2003, this role model to many women has taken on the awesome responsibility of board chairwoman and general manager of Baosteel Group and board chairwoman of Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. Today she still holds the twin positions of board chairwoman for Baosteel Group and Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. Ltd.

Since 1978, Xie has projected most of her energy towards the development of the Baosteel Group. She formed Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation, the largest iron and steel united corporation in China, after receiving authorization from the State Council to amalgamate Shanghai Iron and Steel Plant and Meishan Iron and Steel Company with her Baosteel Group.

In April 2001, after working hard to improve the industrial concentration of Baosteel, Xie turned her attention to the strategic alliance between Baosteel Group and Capital Iron and Steel Company and Wuhan Iron and Steel Company, in the process propelling Baosteel Group into the world's top 12 steel corporations with over 10-million-ton yearly output.

New Targets

In January 2004, the Baosteel Group signed a cooperation framework agreement with France's Arcelor, an international steel maker, and Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), to jointly build a steel plant in Brazil. This was regarded as China's largest direct investment in projects overseas at the time and became the entry point of Baosteel into the foreign market.

On July 12, 2004, Fortune formally published the ranking of the top 500 companies in the world for 2003. Baosteel Group ranked No.372 with a 120.4 billion yuan ($14.548 billion) income in 2003, being the first Chinese manufacturer to enter the ranking of the world's top 500 companies. This year, Baosteel's ranking leapt to 309, advancing 63 places.

"Xie led the Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation in setting record earnings and revenue and successfully pioneered a path in the trades traditionally dominated by men," said Fortune.

Xie has big plans for Baosteel during the "11th Five-Year Plan" period. "We will form the framework of our comprehensive operation system by the end of 2005 and realize our integrated operation by 2010, entering the ranks of the world's three strongest steel corporations," she said.

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