Weijian Shan

Weijian Shan (born 1954) is an economist, businessman, and author based in Hong Kong. Shan is the Executive Chairman of PAG, a leading alternative investment firm focused on the Asia Pacific region. Shan currently serves as a Trustee of The British Museum and as an independent director of Alibaba Group.

Shan authored Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America (2019), a memoir recounting his experience during the Cultural Revolution. He also published Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea’s Most Iconic Bank (2021) and Money Machine: A Trailblazing American Venture in China (2023).

Biography
Born in 1954 and raised in Beijing, Shan grew up in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. In 1969, when Mao Zedong closed all universities and dispatched youngsters to the countryside, Shan was sent to Inner Mongolia where he would spend 6 years in the Gobi Desert. He returned to Beijing in 1975 and enrolled at the Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade (now University of International Business and Economics) where he would study English.

Shan later moved to the United States as part of the first cohort of mainland Chinese students studying abroad after the Cultural Revolution. He earned an MBA from the University of San Francisco before continuing his studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he would earn a M.A. and PhD.

In 1987, Shan joined the World Bank in Washington DC as an investment officer. He taught as an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for 6 years, where he founded the China Economic Review.

Shan held various positions at J.P. Morgan between 1993 and 1998, eventually rising to become a Managing Director. Shortly thereafter, he became a co-managing partner at Newbridge Capital, later renamed TPG Asia, and a partner of TPG.

Shan is a member of the Board of Trustees of The British Museum and an independent director of the Alibaba Group. Shan is a frequent contributor to journals and newspapers. His commentaries have been featured prominently in the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs and others. His memoir, Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America, was published by Wiley in January 2019 and became a national bestseller in February 2019. Shan is also the author of Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea’s Most Iconic Bank (2021) and Money Machine: A Trailblazing American Venture in China (2023).

Books Authored

 * Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America
 * Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea’s Most Iconic Bank
 * Money Machine: A Trailblazing American Venture in China