Qi is a Certified Public Accountant and has significant business experience as a Founding Partner of one of China’s top fifteen audit and accounting firms that employed more than 750 staff in 17 offices across China.
Qi left Beijing and subsequently worked in Hong Kong and led Mainland and International Affairs for the Hong Kong CPA institute, before moving to the UK in 2006 where she worked for many years at a top 20 UK Accountancy Firm in Corporate Finance.
In 2011, Qi joined Kalahari Minerals Ltd and Extract Resources Ltd as the CEO and a Board Member, immediately following the acquisition of these companies by her employer CGN, the largest nuclear power company in China. These companies own one of the largest uranium mines in the world located in Namibia they acquired for more than $4.5 billion. At the same time, she joined the board of North River Resources Plc as a non-Executive Director, as her company had a substantial interest in this mining exploration company.
With CGN’s plans to expand its presence in the UK, Qi was appointed as the Chief Representative of CGN in the UK in 2014. In September 2016, after protracted negotiations with the British Government and the French energy giant EDF, CGN entered into a Joint Venture agreement with EDF to build nuclear power plants on three sites in the UK, including the well-known Hinkley Point C. Qi was then appointed as the CFO to General Nuclear International Ltd, a CGN’s company that controls the Chinese side of the Joint Venture projects. She was at the same time appointed as a Board Member and CFO to numerous related companies and businesses.
Qi is married and has a daughter aged six. Her greatest hobby is country walks.
1. Which place, or city or country do you most feel at home in?
Where I feel at home most is London, as my own family, my husband and daughter are here. If pressed, even though I love London, I would say Shenzhen is my home in China, because I lived there and worked there and achieved the most in my life there.
2. What are your proudest achievements?
I never thought that I could have a baby because I worked too hard, gave myself too much pressure! So having my daughter at the age of 40 was my greatest source of pride.
3. What inspires you?
Everyday challenges. I feel I must face them and resolve them to contribute to life. I think we all know that life is tough so meeting the challenges needs one to be pretty robust.
4. What has been biggest obstacle in your career?
I never felt that I had any obstacles, only challenges.
5. Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
At the start of my career, my firm’s Senior Partner, but since I came to England, my husband. They are both great professionals. I have learnt a great deal from them, but I am my own person. It’s good to listen, that is how we learn.
6. What is the best aspect about your current role?
The great challenge of it, but enjoying the success of dealing with it.
7. And the worst?
Again the great challenge of it, but sometimes struggling to find solutions. On the other hand, it is something new to face and makes me run. The two questions 6 and 7 always go together like Yin and Yang.
8. What are your long term goals?
I want to gain enough experiences to write books in my later life, like my mother in law who started writing books at age of 80, then kept writing until the age of 94, and published 7 books. With age comes wisdom.
9. If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?
Bring back family values to the society, like taking care of our elderly parents, rather than putting them in care homes and also, I think that young people should marry first before having children.
10. If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?
Margaret Thatcher, to chat with her about her experiences of how she achieved so much in a man’s world.
