Known for his entertaining trade show presentations, Jonney Shih has become an endearing legend in Taiwan’s tech scene. The chairman of ASUS wasn’t part of its founding team, but he also came from Acer and was very much involved, creatively and financially, in ASUS’ inception.

In 1992, Shih joined the group as CEO and led ASUS to become a global tech leader, ranking first in motherboard sales and second in consumer notebooks. He pushed his engineers to learn “design thinking”, and the company came out with innovative models like the Eee keyboard, the PadFone, and the Transformer. The ZenFone, which was released in 2014, turned ASUS into a top smartphone brand.

In 2016, ASUS made a splash with its Zenbo home robot, which was touted as a cute companion for household management. Responding to the effects of the pandemic and US-China trade tensions, Shih has accelerated the company’s digital transformation, looking to AI to improve operational efficiency and increase competitiveness.