Starting from the reform and opening up in 1978, the private sector has become an indispensable force behind the China's miracle. The private sector has become a major contributor to job creation, technological innovation and tax revenue, adding that the sector has played an important role in transferring rural labor force and contributing to the international market.

Currently in China, 85% of the 57 million private enterprises are family business. They are now faced with generational succession challenges. New Fortune China Rich List in 2019 shows that 78% of the top 500 entrepreneurs are over 50 years old, which forecasts the incoming of a huge succession tide over the next 10~20 years in China.

According to Businessweek, about 40% of U.S. family-owned businesses transition into second-generation businesses, approximately 13% are passed down successfully to a third generation, while 3% survive to a fourth or beyond. For China, among the 57 million family businesses, 60% of which (34 million) may disappear due to the succession challenge. This "gray rhino" may cause series of economic and social problems, such as the decrease of employment and growth.

Tsinghua University’s PBCSF Research Center for Global Family Business Research was founded in 2015, with the mission of creating knowledge of family businesses, cultivating multi-generational family leaders, promoting and enabling the development of wealth management industry, and contributing to China’s long-range development.

For many years, the center has been devoted to the research in the areas of family business, wealth management, family office, family philanthropy, etc., and has published more than 200 articles and case studies in domestic and international academic journals and magazines, and 8 books on family business and wealth management. The center has co-authored 11 Harvard Business School (HBS) cases, including the HBS’s first case of Asian private banking, family office and university endowment in China.

The center provides superior research for policymakers, such as China’s and foreign ministries, central and local regulators, etc. The center collaborates closely on research projects with reputational institutions globally, such as World Economic Forum, Gates Foundation, China Banking Association (CBA), UBS, HSBC, Ping An Group, etc. Based on the intellectual contributions it makes for sustainable development of the national economy and private enterprises, The center is aiming to become a leading center with great international impact in the fields of family business and wealth management.

The center brings together the best minds from academia and the industry by assembling a high-level team of full-time researchers, several part-time researchers and an administrative staff. The center’s director Dr. Hao GAO (Tony), is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils, a member of Advisory Board of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), a co-editor of Wealth Management Journal, a chief editor of Family Business Governance Series and Family Wealth Succession Series, a research fellow of China Enterprise Reform and Development Society (CERDS), and a China Committee member of STEP.

Research Center for International Finance and Economics

Hao Gao Lei Xu Jing An Zimou Sun Yang Gao Zhixin Li Ruoxi Tian Yuanyu Qu Feifei Lv Dan Wang Yanling Lian Guangli Zhang Lina Zhu Feng He Ying Fu Kai Wang Jinli Xiao

Director Assistant Director Senior Research Fellow Senior Research Fellow Senior Research Fellow Intermediate Research Fellow Junior Research Fellow Part-time Research Fellow Part-time Research Fellow Part-time Research Fellow Part-time Research Fellow Part-time Research Fellow Part-time Research Fellow Part-time Research Fellow Part-time Research Fellow Part-time Research Fellow Part-time Research Fellow