Fu Chengyu, Chief Executive of China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), has been honored with the 2006 China Business Leader award.

In a unanimous agreement by the jury, Fu's strength and courage in taking his company to the brink of a takeover of California-based oil and gas company Unocal was given high praise. The bid offer, worth $18.5 billion, marks the biggest overseas takeover yet attempted by a Chinese company.

With over 30 years' work experience in the oil industry, the straight-talking leader, fluent in English, was appointed president of CNOOC in 2003. Heading a company with a mammoth staff of 37,000 and 50 billion yuan in registered capital, Fu has earned the third largest national energy supplier a reputation as one of China's best-managed businesses.

Fu, who has graced the pages of Fortune, People and Time, employs a Western-trained background and people-oriented management style, which has already made him a legend in corporate governance enhancement and the cut and thrust world of commercially driven business ventures.

Despite the failure of the Unocal deal, due to what CNOOC said was "unprecedented political opposition" in the United States, the move has centered the international spotlight firmly onto CNOOC, and allowed Fu to secure greater influence in the oil market, such as a recent ambitious and aggressive business expansion for oil in Nigeria and liquefied natural gas in Australia.

The award of the year was organized and sponsored by a leading Chinese financial media organization, China Business Network Co. Ltd., and its strategic partner, CNBC Asian Pacific.