2023 Annual General Meeting – Record Membership and Important Milestones Celebrated

AmCham Taiwan held its Annual General Meeting on November 21 at the Shangri-La’s Far Eastern Plaza Hotel. A record number of members gathered to vote for new members of the Board of Governors & Supervisors and decide on other items brought to the meeting. Members were especially honored to be joined by the founder of TSMC, Dr. Morris Chang, as this year’s keynote speaker.

Chairperson Shih opens the 2023 Annual General Meeting.

Opening Remarks

AmCham Chairperson Vincent Shih opened the event, remarking on the year’s significant milestones in Taiwan-U.S. economic and trade cooperation achieved during the previous week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Meeting. These included the resumption of the Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD), advancement of a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, commitment to accelerating the schedule for the second-stage negotiations of the Taiwan-U.S. Initiative on 21st-Century Trade and promoting cooperation to include third-party countries – all issues of longstanding concern for the Chamber.

The U.S. government has also reaffirmed its support for Taiwan, he said, adding that this year has seen advancements such as the passing of the Taiwan Fellowship Act that help forge a shared vision for cooperative growth. Despite global headwinds and geopolitical challenges, Taiwan has outpaced its competitors in the region and as members reported in the Chamber’s Business Climate Survey, remain confident in Taiwan’s economic fundamentals going forward.

Dr. Morris Chang addresses AGM attendees.

Keynote by Dr. Morris Chang

Guests were treated to keynote remarks by the founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., who shared his early experiences interacting with Taiwan during his time as Global Vice President at Texas Instruments in the 1960s, including discussions with then Minister of Economic Affairs Li Kwoh-ting, the ‘father’ of Taiwan’s economic miracle. Dr. Chang said that Li worked tirelessly to overcome intellectual property rights and land use challenges in establishing the factory, which finally allowed Texas Instruments to successfully take root in Taiwan. Dr. Chang said that Taiwan has excellent talent and welcomes companies to set up here, ushering in an era of prosperity for Taiwan. He said that this initial experience of American investment was an important milestone in Taiwan’s economic development. AGM attendees found the speech interesting and insightful, and often laughed at Dr. Chang’s recollection of amusing details from his youth.

Thanking the Board

After guests were served lunch, Chairperson Shih returned to thank the members of the current Board of Governors & Supervisors for their efforts over the past year. He noted that this was also the end of his term as Chairperson, and said that one of his personal highlights of the year was helping to find AmCham’s new President, Patrick P. Lin. Shih was then joined on stage by Lin, who thanked Shih for his leadership and support over the first 100 days of his tenure. Lin then introduced the fourteen candidates for governor and four candidates for supervisor.

 

AmCham President Patrick P. Lin addresses the AGM.

State of the Chamber

After thanking the candidates for their interest and commitment to the Chamber, Lin provided an overview of the highlights of 2023 and a preview of 2024. In 2023, the Chamber set some new membership records – 1,195 individuals, 580 member accounts –  as well as stable revenue and healthy reserves. AmCham also welcomed 180 individuals and 93 companies as members and hosted record numbers at its signature events, Hsieh Nien Fan, the AGM, and the American Ball.

In 2023 concerted effort has been made by the Chamber to embed ESG principles across the Chamber’s work via a steering group led by Regent Taipei Chairman Steven Pan. Lin highlighted that this has included visits to member companies, walking in Taiwan LGBT Pride for the first time, as well as the topic for 2023’s NextGen program. AmCham is already planning more ESG-themed activities in 2024, including cooperating with the American Institute in Taiwan on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.

Through the launch of AmCham’s Executive Sweet podcast, AmCham’s content is now available through more channels. Readership of TOPICS also grew in 2023, up 60% in the first ten months of the year.

Lin then shared with members AmCham’s advocacy achievements and various measures to further the interests of its member companies. These achievements included progress on the items in the 2023 Taiwan White Paper Messages to Washington, as well as movement on issues raised with the Taiwan government. In 2023’s Business Climate Survey, 88% of members reported that they plan to maintain or increase their investment in 2023, with Lin asking them to make the same commitment in 2024!

Election Results

AmCham Taiwan conveys its sincere gratitude to all the voting members who attended and offered their support at the AGM. With your help, we reached a quorum in line with our legal obligations and held a successful election.

Chairperson Vincent Shih casts his vote at the 2023 Annual General Meeting.

The Board page on our website will be updated in January when the new Board assumes its duties. The results of the 2023 Board Elections are as follows:

2024-2025 Governors (Serving a two-year term, beginning January 1, 2024):

Shelley Chia, Deloitte & Touche
John Lee, Merck Ltd. Taiwan
Steven Pan, Regent Taipei
Vincent Shih, Microsoft Taiwan Corp.
Gwenyth Wang-Reeves, General Electric International Inc., Taiwan Branch
Andrea Wu, Agility Strategic Consulting, Ltd.

1st Alternate: ST Liew, Qualcomm Communication Technologies, Ltd.
2nd Alternate: CW Chin, Applied Materials Taiwan
3rd Alternate: Seraphim Ma, Baker McKenzie

2024 Supervisors (Serving a one-year term, beginning January 1, 2024)

Cindy Chen, Adecco Personnel Co., Ltd.
Max Chen, Taiwan Facebook Limited (Meta)
Fran Milnes, Novartis (Taiwan) Co., Ltd.

1st Alternate: Andrew Ho, Corning Display Technologies Taiwan

Congratulations to the winning candidates, and heartfelt thanks to all the candidates that put themselves forward for the election.