Mr. William Li is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of NIO (NYSE: NIO). In November 2014, Mr. Li founded NIO with the goal of shaping a joyful lifestyle for users by providing high-performance intelligent electric vehicles and the best user experience, and building a community starting with cars to share the joy and grow together with users. In September 2018, NIO started trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Mr. Li is a serial entrepreneur. In 2000, he founded Bitauto Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: BITA), the largest provider of online content for the automotive industry in China, and still serves as the Chairman of the board of directors today. Mr. Li is one of the first Internet entrepreneurs in China. Whilst studying at Peking University, he founded Beijing Antarctic Technology Development Co. Ltd., one of the earliest Internet-based companies in China. In 1997, he co-founded Beijing Kewen Book Information Technology Co. Ltd., the predecessor of Dangdang.com. So far, he has co-founded and invested in over 40 enterprises in the Internet and automotive industries.

In January 2018, Mr. Li was recognized by Sina Finance, People's Daily and Wu Xiaobo's Channel as one of the "2017 Top 10 Economic Personages of China".

In 2008, Mr. Li was recognized by the China Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) as one of the top 10 most influential and distinguished people within China's automobile deal industry in the past thirty years.

Mr. Li was born in Anhui, China. He received his bachelor's degree in sociology from Peking University where he minored in law.