Established in 1999, GSA’s first Exemplary Leadership Award was given to Dr. Morris Chang, chairman and CEO of TSMC. Today, the Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award recognizes individuals for their exceptional contributions, exemplifying how their vision and global leadership have transformed and elevated the entire semiconductor industry. This year, we are pleased to announce MediaTek’s chairman and CEO, Ming-Kai Tsai, as the 2015 winner.
Ming -Kai (MK) Tsai is the chairman and CEO of MediaTek Incorporated, a leading fabless semiconductor company established in Hsinchu, Taiwan, in 1997. Under Chairman Tsai’s leadership, MediaTek has grown to one of the top-three fabless semiconductor companies in the world, and is the first and only top-listed fabless semiconductor company headquartered outside USA. MediaTek ranks, by revenue, the largest in optical storage, optical disk players and DTV chipsets, and the second largest in mobile phone cellular baseband chipsets in the world.
Chairman Tsai received a BSEE from National Taiwan University and a MSEE from University of Cincinnati. His career began with Electronic Research & Service Organization (ERSO) at Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a national leading technology research firm in Taiwan, where he served as IC Design Manager for seven years. During the next 14 years, he took on various high-level executive positions at United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC). In 1994, he was made president of UMC’s Business Unit II, which produced chipsets for consumer and multimedia products. Three years later, the division was spun off and formed into what is now MediaTek.
Chairman Tsai has received various awards and accolades for his achievements, including the ITRI Laureate Award, honorary doctoral degrees from National Tsing Hua University and National Chiao Tung University, and the Distinguished Graduate Alumni Award from National Taiwan University in Taiwan. He is also the narrator of the book, Search for the Competitive Strength, published in Taiwan in 2002. In the book, he shares with readers his insight and experience with the global IC design industry. In 2013 and 2014, Chairman Tsai was recognized among “100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World” by Harvard Business Review. In 2015, MediaTek appeared in Forbes’ Global 2000, where Chairman Tsai was additionally named as the 3rd top performing CEO from the list.