Stan Shih

Stan Shih, Acer’s co-founder returned as Chairman in November 2013 with the objective of leading the company through a third corporate transformation and back to profitability. Having completed the tasks set for the six-month transition, in June 2014, Shih stepped down from chairmanship but remains as Honorary Chairman of Acer.

Shih dedicated his efforts to promoting public interests after his initial retirement from Acer at the end of 2004. In recent years, he has been publicly speaking on the Wangdao ideology in relation to organizational sustainability in modern times, and hopes to engrain its principles into Acer to reshape the corporate culture. Through this, Shih expects to help Acer set a new business direction, develop more competitive products, and invest in new potential businesses of the future.

A social entrepreneur all his life, Shih serves as the chairman of Stans Foundation and iD SoftCapital Group. In social and public services, he is the chairman of APEC Digital Opportunity Center 2.0 project’s non-government steering committee and Cloud Gate Culture and Arts Foundation. He is on the board of directors of National Chiang Kai-Shek Cultural Center, Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation, and Chinese Television System.

Shih also serves on the Boards of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Nan Shan Life Insurance Company. He is a former chairman and current member of the Asia Business Council.

In 2007, Shih was a member of Taiwan’s special envoy to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Summit in Sydney, Australia. In recognition of his long-term outstanding contributions, Shih received the Order of the Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon from the president of Taiwan in October 2011, and honored as one of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) Laureates in 2012.

Shih has received numerous accolades including One of the 10 Most Outstanding Young Persons in Taiwan (1976), The Most Outstanding Young Engineer in Taiwan (1981), and ranked first place in One of the 10 Most Outstanding Young Persons in the World (1983). BusinessWeek named Shih as one of the 25 Top Managers of the Year in 1996. Time featured him in the article “60 years of Asian Heroes” for turning Taiwan into a PC-manufacturing powerhouse.

Shih earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Electronics Engineering and honorary Ph.D. from the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Technology by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and an Honorary Doctor of International Law by the Thunderbird School of Global Management.