Linglong Tire Personnel Adjustment: Founder's Son Wang Feng Resigns as President, Zhejiang University Graduate Zhou Lingkun Takes Over

Source: Taishan Finance

Taishan Finance Reporter Jing Ming

On March 16, Linglong Tire (601966) announced a major personnel change. The company’s board of directors received a written resignation application from Wang Feng, the son of founder Wang Xicheng. Wang Feng resigned from his position as President to optimize the company’s governance structure but will continue to hold other positions within the company. On the same day, the company’s sixth board of directors approved the proposal, agreeing to appoint Zhou Lingkun as the new President of the company.

The new President, Zhou Lingkun, was born in 1974, graduated from Zhejiang University, and has extensive experience in industry consulting and management. From July 1997 to February 2026, he served as an SAP implementation consultant at Arthur Andersen, a business process designer and SAP consultant at IBM, and also served as General Manager of the Enterprise Application Consulting Department and Global Delivery Center Director at Hewlett-Packard China. At Deloitte China, he held multiple core positions, including Managing Partner of Management Consulting East Region, Chief Talent Officer of Management Consulting, President of Digital Business Group, and Automotive Industry Partner. He also served as a member of Deloitte China’s board of directors. His strong industry background laid a solid foundation for his leadership at Linglong Tire.

As Linglong Tire’s “young leader,” Wang Feng was born in 1972. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree, he joined the predecessor of Linglong Group, Yantai Tire Factory, rising from an ordinary worker to workshop director. In 1996, after an organizational assessment, Wang Feng was appointed Deputy Factory Director and Manager of the Import and Export Company, becoming the youngest deputy section-level official in Zhaoyuan at that time. In 2001, at age 29, Wang Feng became General Manager of Linglong Tire after the company’s shareholding reform, leading the company’s development for many years. According to the 2024 annual report, Wang Feng’s pre-tax annual salary was 2.3183 million yuan.

Founded in 1975, Linglong Tire was originally Zhaoyuan Tire Manufacturing and Repair Factory. In its early days, it had outdated equipment and technology, only capable of tire retreading and repair. Over 12 years, after seven successive factory directors, the enterprise was on the brink of collapse. By the end of 1986, the factory had only 108 employees and total assets of less than 500,000 yuan.

In 1987, Wang Xicheng, then 39, took over as the eighth factory director of Zhaoyuan Tire Manufacturing and Repair Factory. At that time, the local government planned to transform the factory to produce chloroprene rubber, but Wang Xicheng predicted the broad prospects of the tire industry under the country’s economic development and successfully persuaded the government to stick with tire production.

After taking office, Wang Xicheng led over 100 employees to raise funds for building factory buildings and to focus on production. That year, the factory produced 92,000 sets of tires, with a output value of 6.5 million yuan and a profit of 450,000 yuan, revitalizing the nearly bankrupt enterprise. The company then entered a fast growth phase, with annual output value surpassing 100 million yuan in four years, reaching 1.25 billion yuan in 2000, a 192-fold increase from 1987.

In 2001, the collective enterprise of the original county office completed shareholding reform and established Shandong Linglong Rubber Co., Ltd. Wang Feng was appointed General Manager at the same time. During his tenure, he promoted the construction of a new industrial park and made key decisions to import a complete set of industry-leading radial tire production and inspection equipment from abroad, laying a solid foundation for technological upgrading and capacity expansion.

Taking advantage of the market opportunities created by the growth of China’s automobile industry and strong tire exports after 2000, Linglong Tire experienced rapid expansion, with sales revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan in 2008, and successfully listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in July 2016.

In terms of capital market layout, the company submitted a Hong Kong IPO prospectus on June 30, 2025. However, due to no follow-up progress within six months, the prospectus became invalid. On January 23, 2026, the company announced that, considering macroeconomic conditions, its development plan, and the capital market environment, it decided to terminate the H-share issuance and listing plan to protect shareholders’ interests.

As a domestically specialized and large-scale tire manufacturer, Linglong Tire’s products are widely used in passenger cars, commercial vehicles, construction machinery, and other fields. The company owns multiple brands including Linglong, ATLAS, Leo, and EVOLUXX. Regarding ownership structure, according to the 2024 annual report, the actual controller is the Wang family, including Wang Xicheng, Zhang Guangying, Wang Feng, and Wang Lin. Zhang Guangying is Wang Xicheng’s wife, and Wang Feng and Wang Lin are their children. In the “Taishan List: 2025 Shandong Listed Company 300 Richest,” the Wang family ranks fifth with wealth of 13.15 billion yuan. As of now, Linglong Tire’s total market value is 21.6 billion yuan.

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