Ruan Liping left an engineering job to co-found the company now known as Goneo in 1995, building a power-strip business that later listed in Shanghai and made him one of China's richest industrial entrepreneurs. [1]
He left salaried engineering work to start the company
Ruan began his career as an engineer at a local mechanical factory and remained there for roughly a decade before leaving to become an entrepreneur. [1]
In 1995 he co-founded Gongniu with his younger brother Ruan Xueping, choosing a business focused on power strips rather than inheriting an established family enterprise. [1]
The brothers built the company around electrical products and consumer distribution, with Liping serving as chairman as the business expanded. [1]
Public-market scale turned the operating business into a large fortune
The company, later renamed Goneo in English, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2020, giving the brothers' long-held ownership a public-market valuation. [1]
The reviewed evidence supports the standard primarily self-created score because Liping left salaried engineering work to co-found and scale the business himself. No reviewed source establishes an inherited operating company or severe starting disadvantage. [1]
Sources for background
Sources reviewed Sep 28, 2026.
- Ruan Liping · Forbes · Mar 10, 2026
Comparable Manufacturing billionaires
Similar Manufacturing billionaires by estimated net worth.
