Chung-Mou Chang: Taiwan Semiconductor Chairman

Chung-Mou “Morris” Chang was born on July 10, 1931, in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. Morris at first wanted to be a writer, but his father thought he should try something else. He went to the US in 1949 to study at Harvard University. Later, Morris transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering in 1952. The following year he received his Masters of Science in mechanical engineering from the same university. 

In 1958, Morris joined Texas Instruments as an engineering manager. In 1964, he earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. 

Morris spent 25 years at Texas Instruments and rose through the corporate ladder and eventually became the senior vice president in charge of the company’s global semiconductor business. In 1984 he left Texas Instrument then joined General Instrument Corporation as president. A year later the Taiwanese government recruited him to take over as president of its Industrial Technology Research Institute. 

Morris was put in charge of developing Taiwan’s emerging semiconductor industry. He came to the realization that electronic firms, in order to cut cost would increasingly need to outsource. So Morris came up with the idea of putting up a company that would work under contract to meet the design needs of such firms by making chips and other electronic devices. 

He founded, with the help of the Taiwanese government, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) and became its first CEO. Morris would go on to make TSMC into one of the most profitable chip makers in the world. TSMC, by 1999 had among its clients, Motorola, Siemens AG, and Texas Instruments and was hitting annual sales of $1.5 billion. 

Morris became a leading proponent of e-commerce, on the internet he placed a “technology library” which enabled users to access information on the products and designs of  TSMC. 

Morris did in fact find time to engage in his first love of writing. He wrote, “The Autobiography of Morris C.M. Chang-Volume I (1931-1964) which was published in 1998.