John S. Chen

John S. Chen

American businessman

John S. Chen (Chinese: 程守宗; pinyin: Chéng Shǒuzōng; Jyutping: cing4 sau2 zung1; born July 1, 1955) is a Hong Kong-American businessman who served as executive chairman and chief executive officer of BlackBerry Ltd. Previously, he served as the chief executive officer and president of Sybase, a software vendor specializing in data management, analytics and mobility technology.2

From Wikipedia’s article on John S. Chen (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Jul 1, 1955.1

About

Chen has also served on the boards of Walt Disney Company and Wells Fargo & Company and was appointed by U.S. President George W. Bush to serve on the President's Export Council in 2005.

From Wikipedia’s article on John S. Chen, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedCalifornia Institute of Technology3
  • Date not recordedLa Salle College3
  • Date not recordedBrown University3
  • Date not recordedNorthfield Mount Hermon School3

Born in Hong Kong, Chen traces his ancestral origin to Wuxi, Jiangsu. His family migrated from Shanghai during the Chinese civil war. Chen studied at La Salle College in Hong Kong until Form 5, before going to the United States and graduating from Northfield Mount Hermon School, a preparatory school in Northfield, Massachusetts. He went on to graduate from Brown University in 1978 with a B.S., magna cum laude in electrical engineering, and in 1979, with an M.S. in electrical engineering from Caltech.

From Wikipedia’s article on John S. Chen (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: businessperson, chief executive officer.6

  • Since 2013Chief executive, BlackBerry5
  • 1997 to 2013Worked at Sybase4
  • 1995 to 1997Worked at Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme4
  • 1979 to 1991Worked at Unisys4

Chen began his career in 1979 as a design engineer with Unisys, where he eventually served as vice president and general manager of, in turn, the Convergent RISC Platform Division and the Convergent UNIX Systems Group. In 1991 he joined Pyramid Technology Corporation as executive vice president. Chen was elected president, chief operating officer and a director of Pyramid in 1993, serving until 1995.

Chen next joined Siemens Nixdorf as a vice president in 1995. He was promoted to president and chief executive officer of Siemens Nixdorf's Open Enterprise Computing Division in 1996.

Sybase

Chen became CEO of Sybase in 1998. As John Gallant and Eric Knorr noted in IT World, Sybase had been a strong competitor of Oracle, but had become a "dead company" after failing to enter the market for enterprise applications, as Oracle had. Chen and his team proceeded to reinvent Sybase as an "enabler of the 'unwired enterprise'". In so doing, Chen and his team led a re-invention strategy that led to the turnaround of the company into a profitable mobile device software producer, valued at CAD$6 billion in 2010.

Chen was at Sybase for 14 years. Sybase achieved strong financial performance and shareholder returns under Chen's leadership, including 55 consecutive quarters of profitability, $2.8 billion of cash generated, and a 28 percent compound annual growth rate of its market capitalization from a low of $362 million to $5.8 billion through 2010. Sybase was acquired in 2010 by SAP AG.

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BlackBerry, board and trustee appointments

Chen was appointed executive chairman of the board and CEO of BlackBerry Ltd in November 2013, responsible for the company's strategic direction, strategic relationships and organizational goals. He has credited himself with the saving and turnaround of BlackBerry.

On October 30, 2023, John S. Chen announced his resignation set for November 4, 2023, as Blackberry Limited CEO. He wrote a letter to employees of BlackBerry Limited announcing the departure.

He served as a director on the board of the Walt Disney Company from 2004 to 2019 and of Wells Fargo & Company from 2006 to 2018, and as of September 2016 maintains stock holdings in both companies valued in the single-digit millions of dollars.

He has served on the boards of CIT Group and High tech startups such as Beyond.com, Niku Corporation, Wafer Technology, and Turbolinux US.

He has also served as a member of the New York Stock Exchange's listing advisory committee.

From Wikipedia’s article on John S. Chen (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

  • BornJul 1, 1955, British Hong Kong7
  • CitizenshipUnited Kingdom8

John Chen married Sherry Hsi Chen and the couple have four children.

As of 2016, Chen was a trustee of Caltech and of the charitable organisation, The First Tee, and a governor of the San Francisco Symphony.

From Wikipedia’s article on John S. Chen (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Philanthropy

John Chen donates to children’s organisations, scholarship funds for those from rural China and the University of California, Berkeley Chang-Lin Tien Centre.

From Wikipedia’s article on John S. Chen (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources

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