Zhang Yin

Zhang Yin (; born 1957), also known as Cheung Yan, is a Chinese businesswoman and one of the richest people in greater China. , she ranked as the fourth richest woman in Mainland China, and 24th richest overall, according to the Hurun Report China Rich List 2013.

Early life Zhang Yin was born Zhang Xiuhua in 1957 in Shaoguan, Guangdong, with family roots in Heilongjiang. She was the eldest of eight children. She later changed her name to the more contemporary Yin.

Zhang's father, Zhang De En, was a lieutenant in the Red Army, but was jailed for three years during the Cultural Revolution for rightist activity. Because of her father's imprisonment, Zhang never went to college and began working at a young age to support her family. His contacts and connections within the Communist Party would help along her business career.

However, paper quality for recyclable paper in China was poor, and in 1990, she moved to Los Angeles in search of better resources and founded the company America Chung Nam In 2010 Zhang's personal fortune was valued at approximately US$4.6 billion, making her the wealthiest self-made woman in the world, ahead of Oprah Winfrey, J.K. Rowling, Giuliana Benetton, Meg Whitman, and Rosalia Mera. Forbes magazine put her wealth at US$1.35 billion in November 2006, which would have made her then the richest woman in China and the fifth richest person in China. (On a later Forbes list she was displaced as China's richest woman by 25-year-old Yang Huiyan )

In June 2014, Zhang was named Asian CEO of the Year for 2014 at RISI's 15th annual Asian Pulp and Paper Conference.

Personal life

Zhang's first marriage resulted in one child and a divorce. She met her second husband, Liu Ming Chung, in Hong Kong and the couple married shortly after moving to America. Liu was born in Taiwan, grew up in Brazil and was trained as a dental surgeon, a career path he left in order to pursue the paper business with his wife.

Zhang has two children, both of whom live and study in the United States. Her older son Lau Chun Shun is a non-executive director of Nine Dragons,

Zhang Yin holds a US green card.