Tsai Wan-lin (Chinese: 蔡萬霖; pinyin: Caì Wànlín) (November 10, 1924–September 27 2004) was a Taiwanese businessman who, at the time of his death, was the richest man in Taiwan with a fortune of US$4.6 billion (NT$156.3 billion). He was ranked #94 worldwide in the 2004 Forbes Rich List. He founded the large Lin Yuan Group , a banking and insurance group.

He was born into a poor farmer's family in Miaoli , and started out in Taipei by selling vegetables and soybeans with his brothers as a child. Tsai did not attend college.

With one of his brothers Tsai joined Taipei's Tenth Credit Cooperative in 1960. Two years later, they founded the Cathay Life Insurance Company, which at the time of his death was the largest life insurance company in Taiwan.

After establishing firm family control over Cathay Life in 1979, they founded the Lin Yuan Group. Over the next 10 years, the Lin Yuan Group expanded to become the largest Taiwanese conglomerate. The bank, life insurance and venture capital businesses merged in 2001 to become Cathay Financial Holdings , Taiwan's largest financial holding company.

Tsai was first listed by Forbes as a billionaire in 1987.

Tsai was appointed a senior adviser to the president of the Republic of China in 2000.

He died of heart disease in Taipei's Cathay General Hospital , which he founded in 1977, at the age of 81. He had been hospitalized for six years.

See also

• List of billionaires

External links

• Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People