Mr. Chen has propelled the privately held HNA onto the world stage through a dizzying array of acquisitions, a spending spree supported by Chinese state banks<br />and hidden behind a holding company with a complex ownership structure.<br />“And if I were to serve in government, I’d sign a full recusal, so I wouldn’t be dealing with them.”<br />Last week, HNA was the subject of wild online speculation after a fugitive Chinese billionaire said in a television interview<br />that relatives of a senior Chinese leader, Wang Qishan, had a stake in the company.<br />And two of the company’s top executives — Mr. Chen and his brother, Chen Guoqing — seem determined to make a home in New York.<br />The strategy and structure allowed Mr. Chen and his top executives to parlay their small<br />stake in a state-backed airline into a controlling stake in its parent company.<br />In doing so, a group of six longtime HNA executives — led by Mr. Chen — effectively took the group private.<br />In just over two decades, Mr. Chen, 63, has helped transform a small airline in southern China into one<br />of the country’s few global powerhouses, with big stakes in Hilton Hotels, Swissport and Ingram Micro.<br />The Hainan provincial government asked Mr. Chen, a former pilot with the People’s Liberation Army, to help develop a regional carrier, one<br />that would be partly owned by the state and partly owned by private investors.<br />As the company gained momentum, Mr. Chen brought in overseas investors, including the<br />billionaire George Soros, who in 1995 invested $25 million, for a 25 percent stake.
