Wei Chen, the founder and CEO of Sunshine Enterprise Inc. and a business leader in Memphis, was one of four victims who died Thursday, 12/20/18, in a plane crash.
Wei Chen came to Memphis in the late 1990s, from Changsa City, in China's Hunan Province, where he was born in 1971. He relocated to Tennessee to attend the University of Memphis on a scholarship, graduating with a business degree in 1998. In 1998, he founded Sunshine Enterprises, which focuses on the wholesale distribution of Chinese construction and industrial equipment.
Chen served on the boards of the Metropolitan Bank, Memphis in May International Festival, the Greater Memphis Chamber, University of Memphis Alumni Board, and Greater Memphis United Chinese Association. Chen was named to MBJ's 40 Under Forty in 2008.
In 2011, Chen embarked on an around-the-world flight to promote Memphis and raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. In doing so, he became the first Chinese citizen to circle the globe in a single-engine aircraft.
He is survived by his three children and wife, who he met in college.
Your generous donation and loving thoughts are a light of hope to St. Jude children and their families. St. Jude is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Your donations make this possible and give parents hope.