Cai Jinqing is the president of Kering Greater China, covering a key part of the APAC region which, in 2019, accounted for 32 percent of the luxury group’s revenue. Joining in September 2018, she is also tasked with taking Kering’s wider sustainability goals and applying them to the China market.
Cai, who studied at Beijing University and Wellesley College and holds a Master’s in public affairs from Princeton, started out as a consultancy associate in New York in 1993 before moving to Hong Kong to work in private equity. In 2002, she became the co-founder of Beijing-based PR firm New Alliance Consulting International. She also managed the annual conference of Boao Forum for Asia as an exclusive public relations consultant of the forum, building a communication platform for important political and business leaders. In 2005, Cai was a founding partner of Brunswick Beijing, a public relations consulting firm, where she played a central role in cross-border transactions for the firm’s high-profile multinational clients.
In 2012, Cai was appointed the first managing director of Christie’s China, going on to become president in 2014 and chairman in 2016, before being tapped to lead Kering’s Greater China region in September 2018, reporting to group managing director Jean-François Palus.
Since joining Kering from Christie’s, Cai has maintained a role at the auctioneer in a consulting role as chairman of Christie’s Asia Advisory Board. She also sits on the international advisory board of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and the board of Teach for China, a non-profit organisation focusing on education inequality throughout the country. In December 2021, Cai joined the Board of Mandarin Oriental International Limited as a non-executive director.
