Zhang Yue, Chairman of the Management Board, Broad Air Conditioning, P.R. China

Born in Changsha, China, in 1960, Zhang Yue graduated from the college in 1980, taught at a Normal College and also worked in a library. In 1988, Zhang Yue founded the privately owned company BROAD developing China's first ‘nonelectric chiller’. In 1993, he started presiding the technology research & development department and put forward hundreds of innovations during the past decade, which made BROAD the leader in global industry. BROAD gained global awareness with the world’s most energy-saving non-electric chiller, the world’s first CHP (cooling, heating and power) system and the world’s first ‘clean indoor unit’, which effectively absorbs dust and kills bacteria. Zhang Yue has been awarded many international prizes for his tremendous contributions to the environmental protection and social activities, among which are the “China-Europe Sustainability Award” from the Hamburg Summit 2004 and “Knight of the Ordre National du Mérite” awarded by the French government.