A self made entrepreneur, Zhu Qunfei was born in 1970 in the rural Hunan province of China, working hard to care for her family after her mother passed away and her father was injured. She worked on farms to provide for her family, doing typical rural work. In school, she always excelled. Her former teachers have been quoted as saying that she was always “hard-working and talented.” (Barboza, 2015)

Zhou says that she was largely inspired by her father, who encouraged her to challenge herself. She says that she realized that he’d been teaching her “how to do things,” and has said, “My choice of this business, and that I relatively enjoy innovation and research, is greatly related to my father.” (Flannery, 2015)

First job name badge ©Zhou Qunfei

She left home at 16 to pursue dreams in a larger city. At the time, she wanted to be a fashion designer but instead found work in a factory that made watch lenses. Although she attempted to resign from this position after only three months, the factory boss gave her a promotion when he saw how capable she was. In 1993, three years after gaining employment making watch lenses, she set up a lens company of her own with her small savings of $20,000 Hong Kong Dollars (equivalent to $2,000 USD). It was during this time that her hard work and dedication began to pay off. She was self taught in most of her business practices, such as screen printing and understanding the ins and outs of machinery. According to an article written about her by the New York Times, Zhou Qunfei did it all. (Barboza, 2015)

Tens years after she began her first company, she was approached by Motorola to develop a new kind of lens that would be used for touch-screen technology on mobile phones. (Horowitz, 2015) This is when she started her now multi billion dollar corporation Lens Technology. After the partnership with Motorola, more companies approached her. Her work has since been used around the world in various products we all know and love, such as iPhones, Android phones, iPads, and most recently, Apple Watches. Lens Technology is among of the world’s biggest and widely used maker of touch screens for phones and tablets. They are a primary supplier of screens to Apple, Nokia, HTC, Samsung, and so on.

Zhou Qunfei has been married twice. Once to one of her factory workers, and the second time to a member of Lens Technology’s board of directors. The latter she is still married to and has a child with him, as well as a child from her previous marriage. Little is known about her personal life as she likes to keep it private and separate from her work. Since she rarely grants interviews, one must piece together her personality and what kind of person she is, other than a brilliant, hardworking entrepreneur.

© Zhou Qunfei

Despite being a billionaire, Zhou never really takes a break from running her business. She is sharp and meticulous and a self described perfectionist. Lens Technology is her life’s work and she is extremely passionate about it. She has been known to even sleep in her office when she has no time to leave work. Attached to her office is a small apartment so that she never has to worry about going home without work being done. Zhou has been known to be very hands-on in every process of her company. Interviews of her employees say that she can often be found roaming the factory floor, even stepping in when she feels she needs to. When asked to describe her quality expectations, Zhou said, “My father had lost his eyesight, so if we placed something somewhere, it had to be in the right spot, exactly, or something could go wrong. That’s the attention to detail I demand at the workplace.” (2015) So, her products come out nothing short of perfect.