HTC chair Cher Wang to take over CEO role, Peter Chou shifts to product development
HTC chairman and co-founder Cher Wang is replacing Peter Chou as CEO, as the struggling Taiwanese smartphone maker strives to revive its business and move beyond the smartphone market.
Chou, who has been chief executive of the company for more than a decade, will take up a new role as head of the HTC Future Development Lab and “will be instrumental in identifying future grow opportunities for the company”, HTC said.
HTC said Friday that the executive swap completes a process that was already underway, in which Wang had been taking a larger managerial role in the last two years, while Chou was increasingly focusing on new product development.
“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 realize the potential of a new generation of connected products and services. 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.
“As an entrepreneur at heart, I am excited to see so many new opportunities, and I am honored to accept this opportunity to help shape the next stage of HTC’s development.”