TSMC promotes managers as it looks to CEO succession

TAIPEI, TAIWAN: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has promoted three senior executives as the world's top contract chipmaker seeks a chief executive to succeed 80-year-old Morris Chang, known as the father of Taiwan's chip industry.

TSMC said in a statement late on Friday that it had promoted the three to the posts of executive vice presidents and co-chief operating officers, reporting directly to Chang, who is currently chairman and CEO.

The three are R&D Senior Vice President Shang-yi Chiang, Senior Vice President of Operations Mark Liu, and Senior Vice President of Business Development C.C. Wei. They will take up their posts on March 5.

"This reshuffle is the first step in the CEO succession process," said TSMC spokeswoman Elizabeth Sun. "But it's too early to say if any of the three will be the successor."

She added that when Chang took on the CEO role in June 2009, he said he would only keep the job for three to five years. There is no discussion over a succession plan for Chang's chairmanship, she said.

Chang, one of Taiwan's best known businessmen and a 57-year veteran of the chip industry, pioneered the contract chip-making business, founding TSMC with government backing in 1987 as the world's first dedicated chip foundry.

He has been its chairman since then.

Chang spent 25 years at Texas Instruments and holds a doctorate from Stanford. Born in China, he went to Taiwan in 1985 after being recruited by the government to head a body promoting industrial and technological development.