The Mysterious CEO Leading Shein to an IPO

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Business News, News, Daily News

4.2 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2023

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the decade since he co-founded Shein and turned it into one of the world's most popular fast-fashion brands, CEO Sky Xu has remained a mystery – even to his employees. Now, Shein is preparing for an initial public offering in the U.S. which will put Xu on the global stage. WSJ’s Shen Lu profiles the elusive CEO and describes some of the problems the company is facing as it tries to go public. Further Reading: - The World’s Most Anonymous CEO Is About to Take Center Stage - Fast-Fashion Giant Shein Files to Go Public - America’s Top Fast-Fashion Retailer Tries to Shed Its Chinese Image Further Listening: - Shein Took Over Fast Fashion. Then Came The Backlash. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When companies go public in the US, they often make their CEOs very visible.
0:12.0	But when it comes to Sheehan, the company that could be the biggest IPO of 2024, that's not the case.
0:20.0	Skye, she is probably one of the most hidden and invisible and mysterious
0:26.9	company founders or CEOs in the world.
0:30.5	That's our colleague Shenlou. And she's talking about she and CEO
0:35.1	Skye-Sha. The company started in China and is now one of the largest fashion brands in
0:40.7	the world. As any company tries to go public, the CEO is expected to communicate to the public and to
0:50.0	shareholders about their visions and strategies, right?
0:54.0	But Sky is not, he's just not that kind of CEO.
1:00.0	And how unusual is that?
1:03.0	I mean as a reporter, it was pretty intriguing from the get-go that I couldn't find much about him on the internet.
1:11.0	There is just very little about this guy out there and he has not
1:16.2	spoken to the media as far as I know.
1:21.8	But the fact that Sheehan is such a global company, the fact that the company's CEO is basically hidden and mysterious.
1:33.0	I don't think it sits well with investors.
1:38.0	Welcome to the journal,
1:42.0	our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza.
1:46.0	It's Wednesday, December 13th.
1:51.0	Coming up on the show, Sheans a mysterious founder and the challenges he's
1:58.7	facing as the company prepares to go public. This episode is brought to you by Oracle.
2:10.0	AI may be important, but it needs a lot of processing speed,
2:15.8	and that gets expensive, fast.
	...

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