HTC has announced its chairman and co-founder Cher Wang will replace Peter Chou as the company’s new CEO, effective immediately.
Peter Chou, who has been HTC’s CEO since 2004, will be replaced by chairman and fellow co-founder Cher Wang. Chou will continue to remain on the board taking up a “strategic” position in product development as the leader of HTC’s Future Development Lab.
“We are seeing rapid changes in the industry, with the smartphone as our personal hub connecting us to a growing world of smart devices. We pioneered the smartphone industry; now we are applying that thinking to realise the potential of a new generation of connected products and services,” said Cher Wang, Chairman and CEO, HTC.
“The overwhelming response that our virtual reality product, HTC Vive, received earlier this month underlines the importance of these new connected technologies for our future.”
Wang said she is “an entrepreneur at heart,” and is quite honored to accept the opportunity to help shape HTC’s future evolution as a business.
“In his time as CEO, Peter Chou oversaw the successful transition of HTC from a handheld device manufacture for other brands to a global branded company. In his new executive role as head of the HTC Future Development Lab, Mr Chou will be instrumental in identifying future growth opportunities for the Company,” Wang added.
Last year, Ms. Wang was named the 54th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine. She is worth an estimated $8.8 billion.
