Huang Ying-shan to head Tobacco and Liquor Corp

After over two months of headhunting, the state-controlled Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp, formerly the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Board, has named a new chairman.

Huang Ying-shan (黃營杉), director of the Business School of National Taipei University, will be the new head of the company, which has NT$121 billion in assets and 7,800 employees.

He will have a maximum of 45 days to get ready for the job.

Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋), director-general of the Central Personnel Administration, told a press conference at the Executive Yuan yesterday afternoon that what distinguished Huang from the two finalists was his clear vision for the company's privatization.

"In addition to his impressive educational and broad professional background, he knows a lot about the company and has clear and organized thoughts on its future," Lee said.

Huang, 61, is a native of Chunghua County and has a doctorate in business management from National Cheng Chi University. He has 32-years experience teaching and 20-years experience in the private sector.

According to Lee, the 16-member evaluation committee recommended two finalists on Friday to Premier Yu Shyi-kun, who then picked Huang from the pool on the same day.

"The decision is an objective and fair one because it was made on the basis of the evaluation of the committee instead of the premier's personal preference," Lee said.

Thirteen committee members rated Huang as an "excellent" candidate, while the remaining three rated him as "good."

The other candidate received one rating as "excellent," 14 as "good" and one as "OK."

Lee also dismissed speculation that the political affiliation of Huang, who joined the DPP a few months ago, had anything to do with his candidacy.

"It was never an issue during the evaluation process," Lee said. "What the committee cares about is how to find the best and right person to lead the company and meet the challenges of a rapidly changing business environment."

Following Taiwan's accession to the WTO in January this year, Taiwan Tobacco was incorporated on July 1 and plans to complete its privatization in three years in order to stay competitive.

The company has 50 percent of the domestic tobacco market and 75 percent of the wine market.

It is the first state-run enterprise to adopt the public recruitment practice. It failed to find a new chairman on Aug. 1 after the government had unveiled a measure to regulate the practice for recruiting the heads of state-run firms.