Working to Increase R&D Momentum and Foster World-class Talent to Elevate an OEM-based Taiwan Economic Status

Over the years of working with world-class tech brands, Pierre Chen has come to realize that Taiwan, as a manufacturing hub, has faced the predicament that an OEM manufacturer often faces. The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, once remarked that Tesla uses the components manufactured in Taiwan to make products that cannot be made by Taiwan’s tech industry.” This blunt comment has pointed out a severe lack of interdisciplinary experts and marketing abilities in Taiwan. To address the problem, Pierre Chen decided to return to Taiwan to foster talent as he has believed that the key to the transformation of industries lies in “taking action to enhance Taiwan’s talent competitiveness and improve Taiwan’s economic status in the long run.”

To achieve that end, Pierre Chen decided to set up a global R&D center and a high-end production base in Kaohsiung in 2019 in response to the government’s investment program. This has created approximately 2,900 jobs. In 2020, an R&D center was co-established with NCKU in hopes of creating a new paradigm for academia-industrial collaboration and developing world-class talent that is equipped with a domain of expertise as well as comprehensive knowledge.

As pointed out by Pierre Chen, passives makers depend heavily on a group of engineers specialized in the use and development of materials, as well as in physics, chemistry, and chemical engineering to accumulate data and experience. To achieve mutual prosperity, he has collaborated with his alma mater in some research projects in which NCKU’s professors and students conduct research studies on passive component materials and render scientific results for YAGEO Corporation to manufacture on its assembly line. Not only is the combination of innovation and manufacturing accelerated, but many more future managers have been fostered with the help of NCKU, a university known to have a comprehensive curriculum. All this helps to sharpen Taiwan’s competitive edge in the high-end electronics industry globally.

As a successful entrepreneur, Pierre Chen has also put the company’s social responsibility on the top of the corporate agenda over the years. He seeks comfort and solace in music and art in order to find balance in the high-pressure tech industry. An avid art collector, he also serves as an advisor to Tate Modern. He was quoted as saying that “art is part of everyday life, and life is built on art.” When he became keenly aware of how the tech industry sapped the energy of Taiwan’s society, he decided to set up the YAGEO Foundation in 1999 in hopes that the Foundation would serve as the platform between western and Chinese art while facilitating a vigorous exchange of ideas between artists domestically and overseas and rendering financial support to Taiwanese artists to increase their visibility in the global arena. In a conscious effort to help Taiwanese people better appreciate art, the tech tycoon Pierre Chen is leading Taiwan toward a more promising future. (Photo credit: Pierre Chen)