On December 19, TSMC, a major wafer foundry, announced today that Liu Deyin, chairman of the company, will retire after the shareholders' meeting in June 2024, and Wei Zhejia, the company's president, will take over as chairman.
TSMC said Dr. Liu joined TSMC in 1993 and took over as chairman after the company's founder, Dr. Zhang Zhongmou, retired in June 2018. During his tenure as Chairman, Dr. Lau reaffirmed the Company's commitment to its mission and focused on strengthening corporate governance and corporate competitiveness, particularly in technology leadership, digital excellence and global presence.
"It has been an extraordinary journey for me to contribute to TSMC over the past 30 years, and I would like to thank our very talented team for working together to build the company into the industry icon it is today, and it is a great honor for me to take on the role of Chairman of TSMC when our legendary founder retires," said Dr. Deyin Lau. I now hope to retire and give back my decades of semiconductor experience in a different way, spend more time with my family, and start a new chapter in my life. I will continue to work with the Board of Directors on corporate governance until the last day of my term, and I am fully confident that TSMC will continue to deliver outstanding performance in the foreseeable future." ”
As early as March this year, the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association (TSIA) re-elected the 14th board of directors and elected a new chairman, Hou Yongqing, senior deputy general manager of TSMC, to take over the position of Liu Deyin, who has served as the chairman of TSIA for two terms, which is likely to be the precursor to Liu Deyin's retirement and preparation.
In addition to the fact that he is approaching 70 years old, the reason why Liu Deyin retired is likely to be inseparable from the unsatisfactory progress of the American factory. TSMC's Arizona plant in the United States was previously due to the shortage of skilled local installation employees, and TSMC planned to arrange 500 Taiwanese technicians to assist, but local workers believed that they would bring in low-cost labor to snatch the jobs of local workers, resulting in a confrontation between TSMC and local labor unions.
On the other hand, although the progress of the Japanese factory is relatively smooth, it is pointed out that TSMC's style is also very different from the model that the Japanese are used to, making the Japanese shout "not Xi". Therefore, after Liu Deyin retires next year, how TSMC should continue to operate overseas bases is also a big test for TSMC.
People familiar with the matter believe that the biggest problem encountered by TSMC is "culture", whether it is operating an American factory or a Japanese factory, it needs to operate from the position and perspective of the other party's culture in order to smoothly run in the culture.
When Liu Deyin previously mentioned the situation of the American wafer factory, he once said that "Taiwan cannot only manage the Taiwanese people, but also the talents who can manage the world." In addition, international management must understand the local culture, including language and management, and in the future, TSMC will also learn to Xi the management of young people to explain the "why", rather than "tell you to do it" like Taiwan's manufacturing industry in the past.
Liu Deyin further pointed out that at present, TSMC is still in the early stage of learning and Xi, and the first thing is to successfully manage the factory and train the management class, and cultural integration is still too early for TSMC, but he believes that there is nothing that Taiwan cannot do, "every place has its way of doing things, which is what our management has to face."
With Liu Deyin's imminent retirement, the Wei Zhe family will be in charge at that time, and how he will respond and lead TSMC to smoothly manage global talent will be the focus of the market.
Editor: Xinzhixun-Lin Zi.