Haofei Chen  China International Capital Corp.

The buy side says: “When I have a question, he always has the answer.”

Haofei Chen placed second last year in Technology, Media & Telecommunications; this year the sector is divided into Technology and Telecommunications, and the China International Capital Corp. analyst takes top honors in the latter. Clients praise Chen, 34, for his coverage “from the most minuscule operational details to the most strategic issues,” as one buy-­sider puts it. The analyst urged investors to buy China Unicom (Hong Kong) in April 2010, at HK$9.22, believing that the Hong Kong–based company was headed for strong growth thanks to improved network quality and the addition of third-­party sales channels. The stock sizzled up 72.2 percent, to HK$15.88, and led the sector by 68.5 percentage points, through April 2011. Chen earned a BA in economics at Beijing University in 1999 and a Ph.D. in economics from North Carolina’s Duke ­University in 2005; he worked at CICC from 2001 to 2005 and returned in 2007 after stints at Goldman Sachs (Asia) and China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.