Winston Wen-Yang Wong OBE (; born 2 April 1951 in

Taipei County New Taipei City is a special municipality located in northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 3,974,683 as of 2022, making it the most populous city of Taiwan, and also the second largest special municipality by area, b ...

(now New Taipei City),

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

) is the eldest son of

Wang Yung-ching Wang Yung-ching (; 18 January 1917 – 15 October 2008), also called YC Wang, was an entrepreneur who founded a large business empire in Taiwan. In 2008, ''Forbes'' ranked him as the 178th richest person in the world with an estimated net wor ...

, chair of the

Formosa Plastics Group Formosa Plastics Group (FPG, ) is a titular Taiwanese conglomerate of diverse interests, including biotechnology, petrochemical processing and production of electronics components. The company was founded by Wang Yung-ching and his brother Wan ...

(FPG), by his second wife. Wong is now a widower with a son and a daughter after his wife died of stomach cancer in 2007. Wong holds degrees in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, applied

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...

, and

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

from

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

. His English name was chosen during his study in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Career

Wong was executive vice president of Nan Ya Plastics, an FPG subsidiary, until a widely publicized affair (and the resulting 14% drop in FPG stocks) led to his dismissal in December 1995. His father then “banished” Wong to the United States, where he spent one year teaching at the business school of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. While in the United States, Wong met

Jiang Mianheng Jiang Mianheng (; born 1 April 1951) is a Chinese physicist and business executive. He has served as Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the first President of ShanghaiTech University. His father was Jiang Zemin, General Secr ...

, son of

Jiang Zemin Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pr ...

, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China at that time. In 2000, Wong and Jiang Mianheng co-founded the US$1.63 billion Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. joint venture in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, China. Though Wong serves as president and CEO of that company, Wong himself is not a stockholder, due to cross-strait investment restrictions imposed by the Republic of China (ROC). Wong also serves as chair of the Hung Jen Group (宏仁集團) and chair of the Grace THW Group (宏仁企业集团), which are heavily invested in mainland China’s petrochemical and electronics industries, respectively. The Winston Wong Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology was created at Imperial College London in 2009. In 2015, Wong was named to “Top 100 Chinese for Economic Achievements and Contributions” list by ''Management World Magazine''.

Support for trade agreements Between Taiwan-NAFTA/United States

As an entrepreneur, Wong has long been a vocal supporter for increased levels of trade cooperation between Taiwan and the West, and free trade agreements in general. On 26 February 2012
Forbes
featured an OP/ED written by Wong in which he discussed, “A Free Trade Agenda For the U.S. and Taiwan”. The premise of the article being that despite global exports totaling $274 billion in 2010, Taiwan has had difficulty establishing a footprint in substantial global trade agreements. Because of Taiwan’s complex diplomatic relations, it has had trouble entering substantial trade pacts with the economic powerhouses of the United States and North American Free Trade Agreement. Even so, Wong argues that free-trade agreements with several Central American nations, as well as with Singapore have proven Taiwan worthy of inclusion. Wong has pointed to the increased quality of life from “survivor” to “consumer” and entrance into the middle class for millions of people in China, India, and Brazil in advocacy for increased trade cooperation with Taiwan.

Moon Regan TransAntarctic Expedition sponsorship

In June 2010, Wong agreed to be the main sponsor of the Moon-Regan Trans-Antarctic expedition led by

Andrew Regan Andrew Regan (born 14 December 1965, in Manchester, England) is a British-born polar explorer and entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer of Corvus Capital, an investment company. Career Hobson Early in his career, Regan ran a household ...

and Andrew Moon. The Expedition will travel 3,600 miles across Antarctica, from Patriot Hills on the west coast to the South Pole, heading north from there through the Trans-Antarctic Mountain Range, down the Leverett Glacier and across the Ross Ice Shelf to the coast at McMurdo. The expedition has partnered with

to carry out a wide range of scientific objectives. The team is travelling in three vehicles across Antarctica, including two mobile laboratories and the Winston Wong Bio-Inspired Ice Vehicle (WWBIV). The WWBIV will be the first bio-fuelled vehicle on Antarctica to endeavour to reach the

Geographic South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

References

External links

Moon-Regan TransAntarcticExpedition WebsiteWinston Wong Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Winston 1951 births Living people Alumni of Imperial College London Businesspeople from New Taipei 20th-century Taiwanese businesspeople Taiwanese people of Hoklo descent Haas School of Business faculty Officers of the Order of the British Empire 21st-century Taiwanese businesspeople Taiwanese expatriates in the United Kingdom