About The Founder

PLANET CHINA! was created by Philippe Hugot, a China business veteran of nearly 20 years, to help businesswomen and businessmen with little or no experience with China to succeed in this extremely tough and special market.

Philippe’s first trip to China took place at the turn of the 21st century after several years working and doing business in Europe and Africa.

This short trip at a time when China was getting ready to change decided the rest of his career and, in fact, the rest of his life.

He returned soon after with a business partner to establish and manage his own cosmetics manufacturing plant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, near Shanghai. It was the first cosmetics company in China with a 100% foreign capital ever, a distinction that even big corporations had not managed to obtain at the time. This business was sold successfully after several years of operation.

Philippe has since participated as an investor and manager in various ventures and businesses in China, always building-up a wealth of “China expertise” along the way.

He was until recently the China General Manager of the Triballat Group, the European leader in soy dairy and the French leader in organic dairy products. He is now almost exclusively focusing on supporting Chinese and European companies in their M&A endeavours.

Philippe is also a founding member and past President of the Shanghai “FreshStart” Rotary Club, whose purpose it is to support social enterprises in China.