Li Yizhong
Li Yizhong is the minister of the newly consolidated Ministry of Industry and Information. He previously served as head of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) and as chair and CEO of Sinopec.
Li was born in March 1945 in Datong, Shanxi, and graduated in 1966 from Beijing Petroleum University with a bachelor's degree in petroleum refinery engineering.
After graduation, Li began a career in the petroleum industry, starting as a worker in Shandong's Shengli refinery. Over the next 16 years, he rose quickly through the ranks, becoming a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member and managing director of the refinery in 1984. In that year, he was appointed general manager of the Sinopec subsidiary Jilu Petroleum Co.
In 1987, Li was named deputy general manager for Sinopec and became executive deputy general manager in 1992. In 1997, he was named chair and CEO of the Sinopec subsidiary Sinopec Donglian Petroleum Group and chair of Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. In 1998, he became CEO of Sinopec and was appointed chair of the board two years later.
In 2003, Li jumped into government and took a post as deputy director of the State Council's State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. After two years, he was appointed director of SAWS. After the March 2008 State Council reorganization, he was named minister of the new Ministry of Industry and Information.
Li served as an alternate member of the 14th and 15th CCP Central Committees (1992-2002) and as a full member of the 16th and 17th Central Committee (2002-12).