Back in 1999, whilst asking young Chinese university graduates about their role models, Shanghai-based accountant Hoogewerf began to notice a pattern. Time after time the graduates would talk about making money, but when it came to naming the ‘Bill Gates of China’, they would draw a blank. Struck by this, and curious to know who was leading the explosive growth of China’s private sector, he painstakingly sifted through what public sources were available, Hoogewerf’s final list of 50 names marked the first serious attempt of its kind to identify China’s wealthiest individuals. Since then the Hurun Rich List has grown to rank the richest individuals of China and India. In 2018, the Hurun Global Rich List ranked 2694 dollar billionaires, benchmarking China’s and India’s top entrepreneurs in the context of their global peers.