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Meet Rex Chen

Rex Chen, a former Audit & Assurance Partner at Deloitte China and current CFO and president of ATRenew (AiHuiShou).

Year of 2023 marks Rex's 21st year in his professional career. Reflecting on his experience of joining Deloitte right after graduation, he still vividly remembers it. Majoring in International Shipping at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Rex was deeply moved by the speech given by the then partner, Hong Ting'an, at a Campus Talk. Hong Ting'an introduced, "Deloitte is an accounting firm with an inclusive culture; we warmly welcome fresh talents from non-accounting and audit & assurance backgrounds to join us." This presentation gave Rex a deeper understanding of Deloitte. Despite the significant difference between his major and audit work, Rex still applied for an audit position at Deloitte, thus embarking on his career as a CPA professional.

During the early stages of Rex's career, Chinese private enterprises were booming, and he seized the opportunity to work on overseas listing projects at a Deloitte member firm abroad. These experiences allowed Rex to be exposed to more advanced audit methods used by other Deloitte member firms and increased his experience in collaborating with teams from different cultural backgrounds and working styles.

Recalling his time at Deloitte, Rex fondly mentioned that he benefited from Deloitte's talent development strategy. Partners adopt a step-by-step approach to guide the growth of new employees. To provide ample room for new employees to grow, Deloitte partners typically do not assign unfamiliar or high-difficulty clients to newcomers right after they join; instead, they start with clients who have a more established relationship with Deloitte. Moreover, Deloitte’s training system tailors different training programs based on each employee's level. The training content covers not only hard skills such as professional knowledge and audit system application but also soft skills like communication techniques. Therefore, Rex cherishes every training opportunity he received at Deloitte.

Rex recalled an experience where he provided audit services to a joint venture company. He served as the AIC (Auditor In-charge) for this project. When dealing with complex accounting issues, the senior manager analyzed the different considerations of the Chinese and French management teams, guiding Rex to think beyond conventional approaches and judge how to reasonably and truly reflect the accounting situation based on the actual intentions of both management teams. Afterward, Rex learned to solve complex problems based on specific circumstances, see through phenomena to the essence, and handle practical issues by reflecting the actual operations of the company.

There is also a “mentorship” culture among partners, where Deloitte’s mechanism of “senior leading junior” in professional inheritance helps new partners quickly adapt to their new roles and gradually accumulate experience and continue to grow in practice.

In 2018, Rex experienced a significant turning point in his career. After working at Deloitte for many years, he decided to embark on a new journey by joining the social e-commerce company YunJi, based in Hangzhou, as its CFO (Chief Financial Officer). Upon being invited to join YunJi, Rex handled professional issues with ease and successfully led the team to complete the company's IPO in 2019. The stock price surged on its first day of trading, opening up rapid development opportunities for the company and marking an important milestone in Rex's career. However, due to family reasons, Rex decided to return to Shanghai for development. In 2021, Rex took up the position of Chief Financial Officer at Aihuishou Group (a leading platform for recycling electronic products). Rex stated firmly, "Compared to the market landscape of second-hand electronic consumer goods in Europe, China’s annual shipment of 500 million new devices has formed a reserve of 2.5 billion used products. However, only 100 million units are currently being reused, with a penetration rate of just 4%. Compared to the 30% recycling rate in developed countries, the Chinese market has enormous growth potential." Leveraging his solid experience in finance, management, and fundraising, Rex led Aihuishou to list on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2021. Additionally, Rex predicted that high-quality second-hand products would see significant growth in first-tier cities. Despite the downward pressure in the macroeconomic environment, Aihuishou continued to maintain growth and profitability targets. As the Chief Financial Officer, Rex is experienced in cost control. He appropriately reduced non-core expenditures for Aihuishou while continuously investing funds in key areas such as brand building and technology research and development. Rex noted, "Companies need to allocate capital effectively, both by cutting costs and reinvesting profits into critical areas that support business development, ensuring sustainable growth even during tough times." Rex's financial management strategy and market insights have helped Aihuishou maintain a leading position in the industry.

Epilogue

Rex left four pieces of advice for the younger generation at Deloitte China:

  • Arm yourself with professional knowledge as early as possible to enhance your ability to handle complex technical issues;
  • Experienced employees should continuously iterate and improve through critical thinking;
  • Cherish every training opportunity and learn communication skills from seniors in various situations and with different people;
  • Possess a strong self-motivation, dedicating more time to researching clients' industries, which is an essential path to becoming an outstanding auditor.

During his time at Deloitte, Rex enjoyed playing basketball and soccer with colleagues during his spare time. Nowadays. Rex has developed a taste for solitary activities: reading biographies of historical figures and modern history books to enrich his knowledge system and gain inspiration for deep thinking. He persists in running, understanding the allure of marathons for runners. Solitude provides Rex with a different space, allowing his soul to find peace in self-reflection.