Cher Wang, is a Taiwanese entrepreneur and Philanthropist. She was born in Taipei, Taiwan on September 15, 1958. Wang married in 2003 to Wen Chen Chi, President and CEO of VIA Technologies since 1992. They share two children together.
Wang is to be considered one of the most powerful and successful women in computer technology. She is a co-founder and chairperson of HTC Corporation and an integrated chipset maker of VIA technologies. In 2011, Forbes listed Wang and her husband Wen Chen Chi as the wealthiest people in Taiwan, and in 2014, she was ranked again by Forbes as the 54th most powerful woman in the world. Wang’s father was also one of the wealthiest individuals in Taiwan before his passing in 2008. I guess you can say it runs in the family.
Wang studied abroad at The College Preparatory School in Oakland, California. She received her bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981. In 1982 she joined First International Computer (FIC), providing design manufacturing solutions and supply chain management services for automotive electronic suppliers worldwide.
You know the devices we hold in our hands and find ourselves aimlessly scrolling for hours on? Well, Cher was a big part of that. She started HTC with a partner Peter Chou in 1997, HTC (High Technology Company) started manufacturing notebook computers but later went on to make some of the world’s first touch and wireless handheld devices better known as smartphones. HTC became one out of the six mobile phones sold in the United States, also making the first Android smartphone, the first Microsoft-powered smartphone, and the first Microsoft 3G phone. This might have been the beginning of an era for Apple vs. Android.
HTC had the vision to be able to put a computer in the palm of your hand. Since the company shifted to focus on manufacturing smartphones and handheld devices, the first Android smartphones were born. With Wang’s enlightenment over HTC, it has brought quite a huge success. Today she is still the CEO or as I’d like to say “She-EO” and resides in Taiwan. Wang cemented her role in tech as a powerhouse and is still changing the world.
