Property power couple launches education fund

The Wall Street Journal 18 July 2014

The rags-to-riches couple who founded Chinese real estate company Soho China are setting up a US$100 million endowment to send underprivileged Chinese children to elite universities around the world, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Soho’s Chief Executive Zhang Xin and her husband, Pan Shiyi, launched the initiative last week by signing a US$15 million gift agreement with Harvard University. “Getting the best education should not only be for those who have the means – it should be for those with the talent,” Zhang said in a telephone interview.

The gift is the latest example of still fledgling private philanthropy by the first generation of the wealthy since the Communist Party-led government started market reforms 30 years ago.
The billionaire Zhang was a factory worker in Hong Kong before studying on full scholarships at the universities of Sussex and Cambridge in the United Kingdom. She went on to become an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.
Full report on The Wall Street Journal site

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