CEO Today Top 50 – Hock E. Tan
CEO Top 50
Name: Hock E. Tan
Net worth: Approx. $1.42 billion Executive pay: $162 million
Company: Broadcom Inc
Bio: Tan was born in Penang, Malaysia, in either 1951 or 1952. He was awarded a scholarship to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1971. Upon completion of his studies, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1975, followed by a master’s degree in the same field later that year. Subsequently, Tan pursued further education at Harvard University, where he obtained an MBA a few years later.
He was managing director of Hume Industries in Malaysia from 1983 to 1988 before helming Pacven Investment from 1988 to 1992. He then held financial positions at General Motors Co and PepsiCo Inc before becoming the Vice President of Finance of Commodore International Ltd. Tan went on to become the CEO of Integrated Circuit Systems Inc. When this was sold to Integrated Device Technology Inc, he became the latter company’s chairman.
Avago was created following a US$2.66 billion private equity buyout of the Semiconductor Products Group of Agilent Technologies in 2005. Tan was hired to lead this new company as chief executive. In 2015, Tan merged the company with Broadcom Corporation following an acquisition, leading to the creation of Broadcom Inc which he currently runs. In November 2017 Broadcom announced that it had completed its move from Singapore back to the United States in a move which Tan claimed at the time would yield $20 billion yearly in revenue for the US Treasury.
In April 2020 Tan drew criticism when it was announced that he was forcing employees of Broadcom to return to work for 1 week a month during the COVID-19 outbreak. In September 2020, Tan stated that all Broadcom employees were working in the office in Asia excluding India, and 50% in North America.
Quote: “It’s great to innovate — I have full respect for that — but it’s also great to get a return on all the innovation and all the investment you make.”
