Morris Chang

Morris Chang
Morris Chang
Born	July 10, 1931 (1931-07-10) (age 80) Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stanford University
Occupation	Chairman and CEO of TSMC

Morris Chang (traditional Chinese: 張忠謀; simplified Chinese: 张忠谋; pinyin: Zhāng Zhōngmóu; born July 10, 1931), is the founding Chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) in 1987. TSMC pioneered the "dedicated silicon foundry" industry and is the largest silicon foundry in the world. Morris is known as the father of Taiwan's chip industry.

Chang was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China. When he was younger, he had wanted to become a writer. However, his father, an official in the Ningbo county government, persuaded him otherwise. In 1948, as China was in the height of the Chinese Civil War, Chang moved to Hong Kong. The very next year he moved yet again to the United States to attend Harvard University. He transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Mechanical Engineering from there in 1952 and 1953, respectively. After failing to obtain a Ph.D. from MIT, he sought to find a job and got into the Sylvania Semiconductor. Three years after he worked at Sylvania Semiconductor, he decided that the company wasn't enough for him. Chang moved to Texas Instruments in 1958, which was then rapidly rising in its field. After three years in TI, he rose to be the manager of an engineering section. It was then, in 1961, that Texas Instruments decide to invest in him by giving him the opportunity for his Ph.D. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 1964.

During his 25 year career (1958-1983) at Texas Instruments he rose in the ranks to become Group Vice President responsible for worldwide semiconductor business. He left Texas Instruments to become President and Chief Operating Officer of General Instrument Corporation (1984-1985).

Morris Chang worked on a four transistor project for TI where manufacturing was done by IBM. This was one of the early semiconductor foundry relationships. Also at TI, Morris pioneered the then controversial idea of pricing semiconductors ahead on the cost curve, sacrificing early profits to gain market share to achieve manufacturing yields that would result in greater long-term profits.

However, after he left General Instrument, the Republic of China (Taiwan) government recruited him to become Chairman and President of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). As head of a government-sponsored non-profit, he was in charge of promoting industrial and technological development in Taiwan. Chang founded TSMC in 1987, the beginning of the period where firms increasingly saw value in outsourcing their manufacturing capabilities to Asia. Soon, TSMC become one of the world's most profitable chip makers. Chang left ITRI in 1994 and became Chairman of Vanguard International Semiconductor Corporation from 1994 to 2003 while continuing to serve as chairman of TSMC. In 2005, he handed TSMC's CEO position to Rick Tsai.

As of June 2009, Chang has returned to the position of TSMC's CEO once again.

Chang and his wife Sophie reside in Taiwan. His personal interests include classical music and bridge.

Affiliations

• National Academy of Engineering (U.S.A)
• MIT Corporation, MIT's board of trustees
• NYSE, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley advisory boards
• Eisenhower Fellowship Trustees
• Goldman Sachs former member
• Office of the President of the Republic of China advisor
• Committee of 100

Degrees

• 1952, "Bachelor of Science" MIT
• 1953, "Master of Science" MIT
• 1964, Electrical Engineering Ph.D. Stanford University
• 1997, National Chiao-Tung University honorary doctorate

• National Tsing Hua University honorary doctorate
• National Central University honorary doctorate
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (U.S.A) honorary doctorate

Awards

• 1998, "Top 25 Managers of the Year" and "Stars of Asia" by Business Week.
• 1998, "One of The Most Significant Contributors in the 50 years of Semiconductor Industry" by BancAmerica Robertson Stephens.
• 2000, IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal for Exceptional Contributions to Microelectronics Industry.^[1]
• 2000, "Exemplary Leadership Award" from the Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA).
• 2005, "Top 10 Most Influential Leaders of the World" by Electronic Business.
• 2008, "Semiconductor Industry Association's Robert N. Noyce Award"
• 2009, "EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics Lifetime Achievement Award"
• 2011, IEEE Medal of Honor.^[2]

References

1. ^ "IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal Recipients". IEEE. http://www.ieee.org/documents/noyce_rl.pdf. Retrieved May 12, 2011 (2011-05-12). 
2. ^ "IEEE Medal of Honor Recipients". IEEE. http://www.ieee.org/documents/moh_rl.pdf. Retrieved February 23, 2011 (2011-02-23). 

• Chiao-Tung University Alumni (Traditional Chinese)
• Who's Who in Taiwan 2003
• Committee of 100 member profile
• World's Most Successful Immigrants
• I'm Willing to Start from Scratch CommonWealth Megazine, 2009-06-18
• SEMI Oral History Interview Computer History Museum 2007-08-24
• "Foundry Father: Morris Chang", by Tekla S. Perry, IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 48, no. 5 (NA), May 2011, Pages 46-50

Persondata
Name	Chang, Morris
Alternative names
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Date of birth	July 10, 1931
Place of birth	Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China
Date of death
Place of death