Cher Wang

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.

In Oct. 2014, Cher Wang refused to accept the Final Award of the "HKIAC / A11022 arbitration" and appealed to the Hong Kong High Court (Case No.:HCCT40 / 2014) before Judge Mimmie Chan. Wang asserted that the Award was contrary to public policy. VIA product VT3421, an anti-hack chip (also named asTF376) was suspected in assisting the Chinese government of surveilling mobile devices of anti-communist and human rights activists. VIA executive Li Shaolun (Steven S. Lee) admitted in the proceedings that VIA chips did have "back door". The Hong Kong HKIAC sentenced VIA with compensation. In a hearing before the Justice Mimmie Chan, in the High Court of Hong Kong, she said she believed the Award was in violation of Hong Kong's public order and morals. In June 2015 in she remised the case back to Arbitrator Anthony Neoh. The tribunal upheld the conviction in October 2015, and VIA lost the case for millions of dollars.

In March 2015, Cher Wang took over the CEO role from Peter Chou and returned to the day-to-day operations of HTC.

In September 2017, HTC and Google announced a US$1.1 billion cooperation agreement, which involved certain HTC employees would join Google, and Google would receive HTC IP through a non-exclusive licensing agreement.

Wang’s Charity Foundations are holding eight investment companies’ stocks with market value of over US$2 billion. However, only US$ twenty-seven thousand has been donated to charity.

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.