Cher Wang

Cher Wang
HTC CEO Cher Wang shows new mobile phone motherboard at the World Economic Forum on January 23, 2008
Born	(1958-09-14) 14 September 1958
Nationality	Taiwanese
Citizenship	Taiwan
Education	UCBerkeley,1981
Occupation	Entrepreneur
Years active	1997-present
Employer	HTC, VIA Technologies
Known for	Contributions to HTC and VIA; creating a fairly early model of smart phones in 1997
Home town	Taipei, Taiwan
Net worth	US$8.8 billion
Spouse(s)	Chen Wen-Chi
Parent(s)	Wang Yung-ching Jiao Yang
Relatives	Cherlin Wang
Awards	Forbes World's Billionaires list, 2010, 2011, 2012; Forbes World's Most Powerful Women list, 2012

Cher Wang (traditional Chinese: 王雪紅; simplified Chinese: 王雪红; pinyin: Wáng Xuěhóng; (1958-09-15)15 September 1958) is a Taiwanese entrepreneur and philanthropist born in Taipei, Taiwan. As co-founder and chairperson (since 2007) of HTC Corporation (which manufactured one out of every six smartphones sold in the United States) and integrated chipset maker VIA Technologies. She is considered one of the most powerful and successful women in technology. Wang's father was Wang Yung-ching, founder of the plastics and petrochemicals conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group and one of the wealthiest individuals in Taiwan before his death in 2008. As of 2014, she is listed as the 54th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. According to Wikipedia Chinese version Cher Wang involves Hong Kong and Taiwan’s media industry. January 26, 2011 Cher in alliance with Chan Kwok-keung (businessman) took over Hong Kong TVB, became Hong Kong TVB and Taiwan TVBS of non-executive director. Year 2014 Cher’s VIA Technologies, initiates a set aside HKIAC Arbitration Award in Hong Kong High Court against its chip agent, United Communications. Evidence shows that Cher Wang allegedly assisted the Chinese government repression of human basic freedoms, to suppress Falun Gong, neither VIA nor Cher Wang refuted. Taiwan legislators pointed out that hTC mobile phone users may have been monitoring through VIA by China Government. The lawsuit is still pending.

Education

Wang studied abroad at The College Preparatory School in Oakland, California, and went on to receive her bachelor's degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981.

Career

She joined First International Computer (FIC) in 1982. Wang and others founded VIA in 1987 and HTC in 1997. In May 2011, Forbes ranked her with husband Wen Chi Chen as the wealthiest person in Taiwan, with a net worth of US$8.8 billion. In August 2012, Wang was named #56 on Forbes' list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women. As of 2014, she is listed as the 54th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Philanthropy

In 2011 Wang donated US$28.1 million to help found Guizhou Forerunner College, a charitable college in southwest China set up by VIA Technologies' non-profit Faith-Hope-Love Foundation. The not-for-profit college aims to provide three years of free or low-cost education to students from low-income families. Wang has stated that if the college proves successful she may well set up additional similar institutions in other parts of the country.

Wang has also made significant donations to the University of California, Berkeley, including funding to support and enhance the prestigious American Physical Society's Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize, given to researchers who make considerable contributions to the field of condensed-matter physics.

Wang and Chen also provide funding to support a collaborative program between the psychology departments at UC Berkeley and Tsinghua University in Beijing. The Berkeley-Tsinghua Program for the Advanced Study in Psychology aims to create and support collaborative, psychological research between faculty and students from both universities.

In August 2012 Wang donated 6,000 HTC Flyer tablet PCs to 60 high schools in Taipei.

Personal life

Wang is an avid philanthropist who says she prefers to stay out of the limelight despite her many accomplishments. She has begun to insert herself in Taiwan politics, however, by supporting Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou in his bid for re-election and by voicing her support for the 1992 Consensus. Her husband is Wen Chi Chen, the CEO of VIA Technologies. Wang is Christian. She has two children.

External links

• Companies, People, Ideas: Cher Dividend at the Wayback Machine (archived May 20, 2011), Forbes.
• HTC Profile
• HTC Corporation

• Cher Wang in Chinese
• hTC monitoring phones
• "Ma Ying-jeou wins Taiwan election," Financial Times, January 14, 2012
• "I back 1992 Consensus as a true Taiwanese, says HTC's Cher Wang," Want China Times, January 14, 2012