Charles Chen

Dr Charles Chen Yidan, Founder of the Yidan Prize, Core Founder of Tencent, Founder and Honorary Chairman of Tencent Charity Foundation, Founder of Wuhan College. In 1998, Dr Chen co-founded Tencent and served as its Chief Administrative Officer. In June 2007, led by Dr Chen, Tencent launched the Tencent Foundation, the very first charity foundation in China's Internet industry. After leaving office in 2013, he serves as the Lifetime Honorary Consultant of Tencent and the Honorary Chairman of Tencent Foundation. Since 2009, Dr Chen has been dedicating his efforts to set up Wuhan College, a pioneering non-profit private university in China. In 2016, Dr Chen made an endowment of HK$ 2.5 billion (about US$ 320 million) to set up the Yidan Prize to advance education globally. Since 2018, Dr Chen has been the founding board member of Westlake University. In 2018, Dr Chen donated Tencent shares to set up a charitable trust with a market value of more than HK$ 4 billion, focusing on furthering the development of education.As a recognition of his distinguished philanthropic work, Dr Chen has received the China Charity Award and was among China’s top ten philanthropists. Dr Chen ranked at the top of the 13th China Charity Ranking in 2016 and was China’s top philanthropist on the 2017 Forbes China Philanthropist list. Dr Chen is also known as the "Pioneer of Chinese Internet Philanthropy" and the “Father of Internet Philanthropy”.