(Yicai Global) Jan. 19 -- Cheng Xue, vice chairman and executive vice president of the world’s largest soy sauce maker, Foshan Haitian Flavoring and Food, is the wealthiest executive in China with assets of CNY65 billion (USD10 billion), according to a new report.

Cheng is one of 11 women who made the top 50, according to the Hurun China Richest Professional Managers list released today, which discounted self-made entrepreneurs and majority shareholders. She has worked for the Foshan, Guangdong province-based firm since 1997.

Her wealth is more than double that of Martin Lau, president and executive director at Tencent Holdings, who came second with a wealth of CNY29 billion, the report said. Lau started off at the Shenzhen-based internet giant as chief strategy and investment officer in 2005.

Fintech unicorn Ant Group’s top executive Eric Jing came in third place with assets worth CNY17.5 billion. He joined affiliate e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding in 2007 and has served as chairman and chief executive of Ant since 2016.

The ‘father of WeChat,’ Allen Zhang, ranked fourth with CNY14 billion. Zhang joined Tencent in 2005 and was part of the team that developed the country's most popular social messaging app.

"We hope that this ranking can help professional managers understand that creating value for their company can generate wealth for themselves, and let corporate leaders realize that a good incentive mechanism can create greater value for their enterprise," said Hurun Report Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf, also known by his Chinese name Hurun.

The 50 wealthiest managers came from 24 companies, 16 of which worked for Hangzhou-based Alibaba and its affiliates. Haitian Flavoring had six people on the list, while hotpot chain Haidilao and dairy firm Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group each had three.

The average age of female executives in the ranking was 50, and they had been at their respective companies for an average of 17 years.

The wealth threshold to get on the list was CNY4 billion (USD617.4 million).

Editor: Kim Taylor