SHENZHEN/CHANTHABURI, Thailand/MUMBAI/TOKYO -- Laurent Le Pen, 36, was assigned to Shenzhen as an engineer by a French telecommunications company in 2007. He initially regarded the city in Guangdong Province as merely another emerging metropolis in Asia, but he soon found himself captivated by its energy and speed.
Inspired by Shenzhen's dynamism, Le Pen quit the French company in 2013 to launch his own business selling mobile devices that monitored the health and safety of elderly people.
