This dissertation examines the impact of political leadership on economic reform in China’s state-owned economy. I argue that the heads of public sector organizations, at the central level and below, shape reform policy experimentation and implementation through their choices concerning organizational strategy and structure. Following a review of the key state-owned enterprise reform policies in China since 1978, I utilize case study analysis to assess the effects of political leadership exercised by consecutive chairmen of a central state-owned enterprise on the firm’s reform. As the government-directed restructuring of state-owned assets remains an important component of economic reform in China, I next use logistic regression models to analyze the effects of political leadership on mergers among central state-owned enterprises between 2003 and 2015. Finally, I identify four mechanisms that link the organizational change fashioned by political leadership with broader evolution in the institution of state ownership.