Retail | Wholesale | Food | Beverage 2023: TING XU

A Shanghai native, Xu graduated from Old Dominion University and settled in Richmond in 1989. She was working as a computer programmer for the state health department in 1993 when she started a small decorative flag venture in her garage, investing $20,000. Established in part to provide work for her parents, who had been engineers in China before immigrating to Virginia, Evergreen Enterprises was the start of a home goods empire led by Xu and her husband, Frank Qiu.

The company manufactures and sells home and garden décor and gifts for worldwide distribution, making annual revenues averaging $250 million. Building on her success, in 2010, Xu and Qiu purchased PH International, parent company of several home furnishing brands, including Plow & Hearth. In 2014, Evergreen acquired earth-friendly décor retailer VivaTerra.

Xu serves on the boards of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Foundation and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business Foundation. An angel investor, she mentors women in business and financial literacy. Xu splits her time between Virginia and Hawaii, where she was one of the keynote speakers at Hawaii Business Magazine’s Women Entrepreneurs Conference in May.