HTC appoints Cher Wang as chief executive officer

NEW DELHI:  HTC Corporation has named Cher Wang, Chairman and Co-founder of the company, as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective immediately.

Wang will replace Peter Chou, who used to oversee the transition of HTC from a handheld device ODM to a global branded company.

Over the last two years, Wang was increasingly involved in running the various aspects of the business, to allow Chou to focus on product development, a role in which he has demonstrated world-class design and cutting-edge technology expertise. The Board of Directors and executive team agreed that it was now appropriate to formalize that progression and make the organizational changes necessary to enable HTC to proceed to the next stage of its development.

Chou, however, as the new Head of HTC Future Development Lab, will be instrumental in identifying future growth opportunities for the Company.

"We are seeing rapid changes in the industry, with the smartphone as our personal hub connecting us to a growing world of smart devices. We pioneered the smartphone industry; now we are applying that thinking to realize the potential of a new generation of connected products and services. The overwhelming response that our virtual reality product, HTC Vive, received earlier this month underlines the importance of these new connected technologies for our future,” said Wang.

In 1997, Wang co-founded HTC Corp to make the convergence of mobile computing and communications a reality through the development of innovative smartphones. This vision has translated into a multi-billion dollar global company that has consistently been first to market with new technologies, including new wireless generations and the touch interface, and devices for Microsoft Windows Mobile and Android operating systems.

Last year, Wang was named one of the 25 people CNBC judged to have had the most profound impact on business and finance since 1989. In 2011, she was named ‘the most powerful woman in wireless’ by Forbes and one of the most influential women by Fast Company, and she has been ranked on Fortune’s annual ‘most powerful women’ list continuously since 2012.

She was also awarded ‘Person of the Year’ by CCTV in China. Wang graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.