Cigna Taiwan General Manager and CEO Tim Shields doesn’t mind making mistakes and encourages his team members to make them, too, as long as they can turn those mistakes into learning experiences. A native of Edinburgh, Scotland, Tim has been working in insurance for almost three decades, the vast majority of that time spent in management roles internationally. Taiwan is…
Atlas Copco Taiwan General Manager John Demers didn’t do much international travel during his early years growing up in Canada, but he now considers himself a long-term expat and can’t imagine life any other way. He is happy to bring his robust knowledge of industry and his well-formed management skills wherever they are needed –…
Mandarin Oriental General Manager Karan Berry’s 23-year-long career in hospitality has taken him from India to Indonesia, and now to Taiwan. To successfully run a luxury hotel, he says, you need to understand and respect not only the most visible parts of the operation, but also all of the various back-end roles – what he…
Brenda Tang has a passion for sales and is not afraid to admit it. Starting off her post-college career as a general sales associate at Delta Airlines, Brenda worked her way up through middle and upper management in the travel, publishing, and hospitality sectors. She has been General Manager for Taiwan Sales at United Airlines…
During his career of more than two decades at Prudential, Dylan Tyson has racked up a number of significant achievements. He was presented with the opportunity four years ago to be transferred to Korea and then Taiwan, and brought his family along for the experience. Dylan is now wrapping up his assignment as President and…
A native of Kamloops in British Columbia, Canada, Brian Hockertz studied Chinese language in Nanjing and came to Taiwan in 1990 as an education advisor with the Canadian Trade Office. In 1995, he founded OH! Study to help Taiwanese students find educational opportunities overseas. From a two-person company, OH! Study has grown to more than…
Peter Tou, general manager of Edelman Taiwan, has been with Edelman since 2010 after previous experience with Weber Shandwick in Shanghai and GolinHarris in Taipei. He holds a B.A. in economics from Northwestern University in Illinois and an M.A. in economics from the Université Paris XIII. He was interviewed for TOPICS by Niralee Shah. Below…
Joanna Yao has been responsible for the Taiwan market for Baxter Healthcare since 2015 and is a co-chair of AmCham Taipei’s Medical Devices Committee. In June 2018, Baxter appointed her as Cluster VP, Southeast Asia, in addition to her role as General Manager for Taiwan. Below is an edited and condensed interview with her conducted…
In recent years, Dan Silver played a central role in the AmCham Taipei leadership. Besides serving as Chairman in 2016, he fulfilled two two-year terms as a member of the Board of Governors (2014-2017) and at different times was a co-chair of two committees, Medical Devices and Public Health. A graduate of Brandeis University in…
Rediscovering Taiwan BY WILLIAM FOREMAN Taiwan was the first place I visited when I got my first passport. Just out of college, I had two goals: explore the world and learn Mandarin, which I thought would lead to an exciting career. Picking Taiwan as my starting point was one of the smartest things I’ve done…
