Acer today announced that it has appointed a new CEO. Jason Chen, a former TSMC executive, will take on the roles of Corporate President and CEO as of January 1, 2014. The move comes after Chairman and CEO J.T. Wang stepped down in November after a worse-than-expected loss of T$13.12 billion (US$446 million) in Acer’s latest quarter.
Acer Chairman Stan Shih said, “Jason is an excellent manager with extensive management experience and proven execution capability. Acer’s search committee met with him on several occasions for in-depth dialogue and exchange of views. We consider him to be the ideal executive to lead our transformation with his wealth of new thinking, international perspective, and willingness to face this challenge. Moreover, he shares the consensus on our strategy and development for Acer’s future.”
Shih will stay on Chairman of Acer and Chairman of the Transformation Committee but will be able to relinquish the title of interim Corporate President that he had taken on following Wang’s departure.
Acer is another company that is struggling to adapt as consumers switch from PCs to mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. The company has already approved a plan to cut about 7 percent of its staff in a bid to save US$100 million in annual operating expenses in 2014.
Jason Chen joins Acer from TSMC where he had been senior vice president of Worldwide Sales and Marketing since 2008. He had worked at Intel and IBM prior to joining TSMC in 2005.
Source : Acer