Taipei Financial Center Corp (台北金融大樓), which owns Taipei 101, yesterday elected its board members and picked former Grand Hotel chairman Chang Hsueh-shun (張學舜) as its new head, it said in a statement.
Chang’s election as chairman came after three hours of board re-elections and confirmed predictions in Chinese-language media reports.
Chang, 58, a former Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker, gained the most votes in the election, which saw government representatives take seven of the 13 seats, consistent with its majority stake in Taipei Financial, the statement showed.
Japan’s Itochu Corp has five seats after taking over Ting Hsin International Group’s (頂新集團) shares, a transaction that facilitated the board reshuffle. CTBC Bank (中國信託銀行) won the remaining seat.
With a master’s degree in business administration, Chang won accolades for helping the Grand Hotel make a profit two years after taking the post, despite a sharp decline in Chinese tourists.
A strategy shift to focus on tourists from Japan and other nations paid off, enabling the Grand Hotel to post revenue of NT$1.29 billion (US$42 million) last year, the highest in 15 years, Chang said.
Earlier this year, he and colleagues attended a travel fair in Russia in the hope of attracting Russian tourists.
More than 1.34 million Russians visited Thailand and 574,000 visited Vietnam last year, but only 9,000 visited Taiwan, suggesting ample room for growth, Chang told reporters.
He also proved a savvy investor, seeing shares in Chunghwa Precision Test Technology Co (中華精測) surpass NT$1,000 after heading a venture capital fund years earlier.
Chang also headed a technology firm and served as an independent director for Eslite Bookstore (誠品).
He retained Taipei Financial Center president Angela Chang (張振亞).
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