Shi Wenbo

On 9 June 2026 Hengan International told the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that chairman and executive director Sze Man Bok (Shi Wenbo) was taking temporary leave for personal health reasons, with day-to-day management continuing and Hui Ching Lau serving as acting chairman. On the evening of 29 September 2026, Hengan Group published an obituary stating that Shi Wenbo, chairman of Hengan International Group Company Limited, recipient of the 11th China Charity Award and lifetime honorary president of the Jinjiang Charity Federation, had died at 16:55 that day after medical treatment for illness proved ineffective. The company gave his age as 78. Chinese financial and general news outlets including Jiemian and Beijing Daily carried the notice. A specific place of death was not stated in the published obituary.

Shi Wenbo was born in 1950 in Jinjiang, Fujian province, China (Wikipedia also places his birth in Quanzhou, the prefecture that includes Jinjiang). In the Chinese business press he is often associated with Anhai Town, Jinjiang, where he later co-founded Hengan. In 1975 he moved to Hong Kong. Public profiles describe him as married with one son; his son later joined the family company as an executive.

After working in domestic ready-to-wear trade in the 1980s, Shi co-founded Hengan Industrial Co., Ltd. in Anhai Town, Jinjiang, in 1985 with Xu Lianjie (also known as Hui Lin Chit) and fellow townsmen. Their Anle sanitary napkin brand became one of China's early private successes in feminine hygiene, at one point reported to hold a large share of the domestic market. In 1993 he and Xu established Hengan Group and expanded into tissues, baby diapers and related products under brands that later included Hearttex (Xin Xiang Yin) and Space 7 (Qi Du Kong Jian).

Hengan International Group Company Limited listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 8 December 1998. Shi served as chairman and executive director from 1998, setting overall corporate direction and business strategy, and sat on the nomination committee. Company filings credited him with more than four decades in manufacturing and distribution of consumer products. He was also a founding shareholder. Outside Hengan he held roles including non-executive director of Qinqin Foodstuffs Group and a board position at Malaysian-listed Wang-Zeng Berhad. Forbes repeatedly listed him among China's richest people; a February 2016 profile estimated his net worth at about US$2.1 billion.

Shi was married; his spouse's name was not widely published in English-language profiles. His son, Sze Wong Kim (Mandarin: Shi Huangjian), became an executive director of Hengan International after earlier work in accounting in Australia. The family was linked to Jinjiang philanthropy. Shi ranked among leading Chinese philanthropists in 2010 when Hengan's charitable giving was widely reported, and he later received the 11th China Charity Award. Documented gifts include funding for the Wenbo Technology Building and later support for Jinjiang Second Hospital, donations to the Jinjiang Charity Federation, and other local causes. As of the early 2020s Forbes listed his residence as Jinjiang, Fujian.

Shi is remembered as a founding chairman who helped create one of China's largest homegrown personal hygiene groups and brands used daily by millions. With Xu Lianjie he exemplified the Jinjiang private-enterprise generation that turned coastal workshops into listed consumer companies. His philanthropy in Jinjiang, especially hospital and charity-federation support, and the China Charity Award, framed a public legacy beyond the balance sheet. After the deaths of co-founder Xu in 2025 and Shi in 2026, Hengan's next generation of executives, already active on the board, carried forward the operating company he spent four decades building.