Images by Jeffrey Lau

NAME: Zhang Xin
POSITION: CEO SOHO China
EDUCATION: BS Economics, University of Sussex, MA Development Economics, Cambridge University
WHAT'S IN HER PURSE: iPhone, Blackberry

In 1994 Zhang Xin, recently returned to China from working as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs on Wall Street, met Pan Shiyi. Four days later he proposed. Thus began one of the most fruitful partnerships in recent Chinese business history.

For, as well as marrying, the pair formed a real estate company, SOHO China, which has gone on to become Beij ...

... on what to say and what not to say. We can speak very honestly and the media needs that honesty so naturally it became this way.

Is there a dream project out there waiting for you?
I don't think anyone is as privileged as we are – we built next to the Great Wall, we built next to Tiananmen Square, across [Beijing's] CBD, and by the water in Hainan. I think we have been the most privileged developer in terms of what opportunities have been presented to us.