Taiwan Today

Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. CEO and current Chairman Morris Chang will replace incumbent Rick Tsai at the helm of the world’s top contract chipmaker. At a TSMC board meeting June 11, Chang was given the additional CEO responsibilities with Tsai moving over to serve as president of the New Business Development Organization. Tsai also vacated the TSMC presidency, which will be left vacant with no timetable for filling the position. Chang has served as TSMC chairman since the company’s founding in 1987 and concurrently functioned as CEO for six years. In July 2005 he handed the top job to Tsai in what was seen as the first stage of reducing his responsibilities in the organization. Chang stressed during a news conference announcing the executives’ moves that the personnel change was not a spur of the moment decision. Three months ago, TSMC set up its new business unit with Senior Manager Chao Ying-cheng in charge. However, with this segment becoming increasingly important, the division warranted the attentions of Tsai—“a most outstanding manager.” The chairman and CEO explained that given the “extremely demanding” nature of TSMC’s primary business operations, it was “absolutely impossible” for Tsai to serve simultaneously as CEO and president of the New Business Development Organization. Tsai’s new role is not considered a demotion as he previously reported directly to the chairman while serving as CEO. Chang said this would continue to be the case and as such, the change was not considered a major personnel shakeup. The move will not affect TSMC’s fighting spirit and is likely to spur greater intensity, he added. Chang said he hopes the new business division could contribute aggregate revenues of US$2 billion (NT$65.1 billion) to the company’s bottom line by 2018. If so, consolidated annual growth would rise over 50 percent from 3 percent to 4.5 percent. According to Chang, the new business unit will not compete for TSMC’s existing customers, and he foresees the venture as a driving force behind future company growth. The chairman and CEO did rule out spinning the unit off once it got on track. Since the onset of the global financial crisis, many of Taiwan’s founding high-tech leaders, such as Hon Hai Group Chairman Terry Gou and ASUSTek Group Chairman Jonney Shih, have returned to the managerial fray to boost corporate morale. However, it is rare in the high-tech industry for a 78-year old such as Chang to again serve as CEO. (FS-JSM)