Mei Xu
President & Owner
Pacific Trade International, Inc

Pacific Trade International, Inc. (PTI), known for its two brands - Chesapeake Bay Candle and Blissliving Home - is a leading home decor and home textiles company. The brands are distributed in the US, Europe and Asia, with annual revenues of $60 million. Headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, PTI serves global Fortune 1000 retailers.

Mei Xu studied to be a diplomat in China and received a BA in English Literature from the Beijing Foreign Studies University. After the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989, she and other college graduates were sent to work in the countryside and factories for their “re-education”. Not satisfied with her situation, she applied for and received a fellowship to the University of Maryland and in 1992, earned her MA in Journalism.

Mei Xu and her husband, David Wang (he emigrated to the U.S. four months after Mei), took a series of uninspiring jobs and desperate for new opportunities, they went to a gift show in 1994, toting an array of products – massage pillows, musical dolls, silk flowers, glow candles and more. The glow candles got $90,000 in orders and PTI was now a real company. In 1996, sales slowed and Mei turned her home into a lab by making candles in her basement with soup cans and paper towel rolls. She experimented with vibrant color pallets and provocative fragrance pairings. Their first brand, Chesapeake Bay Candle, was born and quickly developed into a global enterprise. Mei's first major client was Target and today, her line is 65% of Target’s fragrance candle sales. Chesapeake Bay Candle, with over 2000 varieties of candles and accessories, has experienced unparalleled growth - averaging 40 percent annual growth over 10 years - and was named twice by Inc. magazine as one of America's fastest growing company.

Mei's passion for style and luxurious comfort at home provided the underpinning of her most recent business expansion. In 2005, she launched Blissliving Home, an exclusive line of sheets, shams and pillows, made from the best cotton and silk. Unlike her wholesale business model for candles, the Blissliving Home products are sold direct, at more than 20 boutiques in China and fine retail stores in Europe. In the U.S., Blisslving Home was launched in early 2007 and is available through e-ecommerce (www.blisslivinghome.com) and catalog.

Mei is a true risk taker and when asked what advice she had for other entrepreneurs, she stated that you must “Focus on what you are best at; become a specialist in your niche” and “follow your heart and passion”.

Mei is also a cultural ambassador and has pledged $1M to bridge Chinese and American cultural gaps. She created the Mei Xu Cultural Exchange Foundation, which has already provided video-conferencing software allowing American students in Washington to have real time interaction with English immersion Chinese students in Hangzhou, China.

Mei and her husband and two children, aged 5 and 6, reside in Potomac, Maryland.



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