Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) is to step down from his position in June next year and the company’s board of directors has nominated chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) as his successor, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said yesterday.
Liu has decided not to seek a nomination for a seat on the board and would retire from the company after the annual shareholders’ meeting, TSMC said in a statement.
The board’s nomination, corporate governance and sustainability committee has recommended vice chairman and CEO Wei as the new chairman, it said.
Photo: CNA
The unexpected announcement came as TSMC is gearing up to build overseas operations in the US and Japan to boost supply chain resilience. The chipmaker is also ramping up next-generation technology at home to defend its market leadership amid growing competition from Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co.
Liu, 70, joined TSMC in 1993. He was appointed as chairman six years ago following the retirement of founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) in 2018. Since then, TSMC has about tripled its market value to become Asia’s most valuable company.
“The past 30 years with TSMC has been an extraordinary journey for me. I want to extend my sincerest thanks to our incredibly talented team who made the company the global leader it is today,” Liu said in the statement.
“I now would like to put my decades of semiconductor experience to other uses, spend more time with my family, and start the next chapter of my life. I will continue to oversee corporate governance with the board diligently until the last day of this term. I am confident that TSMC will continue to perform outstandingly in the years to come,” Liu said.
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