Acer names semiconductor veteran as new CEO

Acer’s board of directors chose Chen as the company’s CEO Monday.

Acer founder Stan Shih will continue to serve as chairman of the company, and he called Chen “the ideal executive to lead our transformation.”

Last week Acer said it would refocus its business on software and cloud services with its PC-making business lagging.

Chen joins Acer after Jim Wong, who had been named to take over as its next CEO, left the company in November. Wong had been named as Acer’s next CEO just two weeks earlier, but performed a u-turn and left “in light of the company’s recent performance,” the company said.

Wong, who was company president, had been slated to take over as CEO in 2014, but the company had posted poor earnings on declining PC shipments. The company, the world’s fourth largest PC vendor, has primarily sold products to consumers, but sales of tablets and smartphones have been hurting its business.

Shih took over leadership of the company after Wong left. Acer said in November it had eliminated the CEO position.

Chen served joined Taiwan Semiconductor in 2005 as vice president of corporate development. He has been in his current position there since 2008.

Previously, Chen worked at Intel in sales and marketing positions for 14 years, joining the company as sales manager for Taiwan. He was later promoted to regional sales manager for Greater China. He later served as Intel’s vice president and general manager for the Asia-Pacific region and as the corporate vice president of the sales and marketing group at Intel’s U.S. headquarters.