Kao Ching-yuen (; 24 May 1929 – March 2016) was a Taiwanese businessman best known as the founder of
Uni-President Enterprises Corporation.
Biography
Kao was born to a poor family in Gakkō Village, Hokumon District,
Tainan Prefecture
was one of the administrative divisions of Taiwan during the Japanese rule. The prefecture consisted of modern-day Tainan City, Chiayi City, Chiayi County, and Yunlin County.
Population
Administrative divisions
Cities and districts
In ...
,
Japanese-era Taiwan (modern-day
Syuejia,
Tainan
Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and commonly called the "Taiwan Prefecture, ...
) on 24 May 1929. In 1942, at the age of 13, Kao began working in a sandal factory. In 1946, he joined a firm owned by his cousin-in-law Wu Hsiu-chi, the Xinhexing Cloth Shop (), as an apprentice before starting his own company, Dexing Cloth Shop (), in 1949.
He joined Tainan Spinning (), a
textile processing company founded by Wu Hsiu-chi, in 1955 as a sales manager.
Kao left Tainan Spinning in 1967 to establish the Uni-President Corporation, and served as company chairman until 2013.
In 1997, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Management from
National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) and an
Order of Brilliant Star (2nd Class) award on 23 December 1999. In 2003, he was awarded a Management Medal by the Chinese Management Association.
Kao's death was confirmed by Uni-President on 1 April 2016, and a funeral was held the same day.
References
1929 births
2016 deaths
Businesspeople from Tainan
20th-century Taiwanese businesspeople
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