TSMC veteran joins Acer
Acer's search for a new chief has come to end. The man who will replace interim CEO Stan Shih is Jason Chen, who served at TSMC from 2005 to 2008 as the vice president of TSMC Corporate Development. Since then, he's been serving as senior vice president of Worldwide Sales and Marketing at TSMC. As for Shih, he will continue to serve as Chairman of Acer and Chairman of the Transformation Committee, Acer said.
"Jason is an excellent manager with extensive management experience and proven execution capability. Acer’s search committee met with him on several occasions for in-depth dialogue and exchange of views," Shih said in a statement. "We consider him to be the ideal executive to lead our transformation with his wealth of new thinking, international perspective, and willingness to face this challenge. Moreover, he shares the consensus on our strategy and development for Acer’s future."
Chen also has experience working for Intel. From 1991 to 2005, he held a variety of sales and marketing positions, eventually being named vice president and general manager of Intel's Asia Pacific region before his last assignment as the corporate vice president of Sales and Marketing group in the U.S. Prior to Intel, he worked at IBM Taiwan from 1988 to 1991.
The incoming CEO has his work cut out for him. Acer co-founder Stan Shih returned to Acer to serve as interim CEO after a quarter of record losses. His return came less than three weeks after former chief J.T. Wang announced his resignation. It's now up to Chen to get Acer on the right track.