Ke-Chen Liu

K.C. Liu founded Advantech in 1983 and has been the president and CEO ever since. In the early days soon after the founding of Advantech he vowed, “though I cannot win a gold medal for my people in the Olympic Games, I will strive instead to serve them by creating a world-class company.” His passion and leadership has inspired the company to stay focused on its core competencies, and finally made Advantech become the leading light in the worldwide industrial computing arena. Furthermore, in 2004 Advantech was recognized as a top 10 global brand in Taiwan by the prestigious brand-consulting firm “Interbrand”.

K.C. Liu was born in 1954 and graduated from the Department of Communication Engineering at National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. Before founding his own company, he worked as an R&D engineer and then later as a sales engineer for HP Taiwan in the Instrument Department. During this period, he accumulated a wealth of knowledge and practical experience. These lessons were invaluable when he and two partners who had been colleagues with him at HP Taiwan later decided to found Advantech.

Advantech is a leader in providing trusted, innovative, embedded and automation products and solutions; offering comprehensive system integration, hardware, software, customer-centric design services, and global logistics support through its extensive global network in 21 countries and 71 major cities.

K.C. Liu, an avid reader, often purchases good management books to share with all of the management team. Periodically, the company holds book-club meetings in its branch offices around the world. Especially high on his list of favorites are: “Built to Last”, “Good to Great”, and “Blue Ocean Strategy”, which he says have had a great impact on the way business is done at Advantech.