Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce.
It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness.
Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last year making public his plan to retire with no intention of seeking a seat on the board.
The board nomination, corporate governance and sustainability committee has recommended that TSMC vice chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) become the new chairman.
Most of the candidates are incumbent board directors, including Wei, F.C. Tseng (曾繁城), Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) and four independent directors — Peter Leahy Bonfield, Michael Splinter, Noshe Gavrielov and Rafael Reif.
Lynn Elsenhans and Lin Chuan (林全) are new candidates to fill the vacancies left by Chen Kok-choo (陳國慈) and Yancey Hai (海英俊), who have retired from the board.
“In recent years, TSMC has gone through unprecedented challenges, compounded by the changing industry landscape and geopolitics. Through it all, the company continues to lead the development and delivery of the latest technology advancements that strengthen its competitiveness, placing it at the forefront of innovation and sustainability,” Wei said in a statement.
“Liu, who has helped guide us through these challenges, will retire from the board with our very best wishes and sincere appreciation for everything he has achieved. His outstanding leadership has played a pivotal role in TSMC’s growth,” the statement said.
In preparation for the succession, TSMC in February tapped two new operating heads, duplicating the cochief operating officers model first implemented in 2012.
The chipmaker promoted Y.J. Mii (米玉傑) and Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛) to cochief operating officer.
Wei would double as company chairman and chief executive officer, the company said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS