T. W. Kang
T. W. Kang is Managing Director of Global Synergy Associates, a management consulting practice focused on enhancing global competence of multinational high technology firms.
He has had the rare experience of serving on the corporate boards of four companies spanning Japan, China and the U.S. He served on the board of directors of NEC Electronics, a multi-billion dollar semiconductor firm in a manner which was exceptional for a Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section listed company: a director who is foreign, independent, industry-insider, and hands-on. In addition to regular fiduciary and governance duties, he aggressively and constructively promoted and developed alliance opportunities.
As a board member of gEM Services, he enabled the formation of a power semiconductor module manufacturing joint venture with Mitsubishi Electric in Hefei, China. As a prior step to this milestone, he successfully negotiated and executed the transfer of an entire Mitsubishi power module production line to gEM's facility in Shanghai.
He has also served on the board of directors of Synaptics where cracking the Japanese market contributed to their successful IPO, and at SiPort which was successfully acquired by Intel.
Kang's consulting practice is based on his unique tri-cultural fluency and three decade business experience in the U.S., Japan, Korea and China. He has counseled his clients on global best practices that include strategic perspective alignment between Asia and the West, cross-cultural organizational structure execution risk minimization, cross-cultural corporate governance, and synthesis of geopolitical and historical factors in strategic formulation.
From 1979-1990, he held various management positions with Intel Corporation involving marketing and product planning of microprocessors and system products, and strategic planning including partner selection and management in Japan and Korea. His most recent position with Intel was System Group General Manager for Intel Japan.
He has lectured widely on issues relating to the Pacific Rim through invitation by the American Chamber of Commerce, the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry of Japan, JETRO, Keidanren, and the Executive Training Program of the European Community. He has appeared as guest commentator on Cable News Network, NHK (the Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and KBS (the Korean Broadcasting System).
He earned his bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He has also guest conducted the San Jose Symphony Orchestra, the Korean Symphony Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Danyu Orchestra in a series of benefit concerts.