Entrepreneur Of The Year 2010
Road to Palm Springs

Jane Zhang

JH Global Services, Inc.
Greenville, South Carolina

When Jane Zhang formed JH Global Services with her husband, Jun Hu, and business partner Robert Weist, she had a rather simple idea: JH Global would be an outsourcing and distribution company that would serve as a liaison between US companies and Chinese suppliers.

In addition, JH Global would provide services to help clients reduce costs, improve quality, better manage the supply chain and increase their global competitiveness.

With the team’s years of experience in US industry, and Zhang and Hu’s fluency in both English and Chinese, JH Global was ideally suited to bridge the gap between the Chinese and American cultures and help its clients make their businesses more successful.

Seven years later, JH Global does all of this with remarkable success. Just last year, the company was recognized by Inc. magazine as one of the top 500 fastest-growing privately held companies.

But the simple idea that started it all is just part of the story. The startup company took a powerful shot off the tee when Zhang, the CEO, identified an amazingly lucrative niche: golf cars.

After visiting a company that sold golf cars and electric vehicles, she was intrigued. Her research revealed that the major golf car manufacturers focused on fleet sales to golf courses rather than individual consumers.

She determined that JH Global could be successful in selling electric vehicles that were customized and intended for a variety of individuals and businesses.

The Star Electric Vehicles brand was born in 2004. Zhang and her team set up dealers in such key retirement markets as Florida, Arizona and Georgia, and the low-speed electric vehicle has driven JH Global Services to high-speed success ever since.