Edward Wang, Class of 2009
Edward is a board member of Taimatsu Tech Co. Ltd. His family business was founded in 1966, and when he was young, he was nurtured to be a businessman. With this clear objective, he paved his way to the business world by having a BBA Degree and a Master’s Degree in International Business in the United States. After studying and working for 8 years in the States, he was asked by his family to come back to Taiwan. In 2006 as advised by his father, he joined GMBA to get a better understanding of the business world from an Asian perspective. He was a distinct student when studying and awarded the FuBon Scholarship and a chance to be an intern there—and this is also where his love story blossomed.
Q1. Your family business was set up with Panasonic in the very beginning, but then you are separated. What is the main reason for this after cooperating with them for almost 50 years?
Our family business first started with a joint venture method with Panasonic Group in 1966; but then in the year 2012, Panasonic headquarters in Japan recorded a $ 10 Billion annual loss and decided to liquidate several overseas facilities. One of them, being Panasonic Energy Taiwan (our factory). They end up selling their portion of company shares to our family; however, they maintained as one of our most valuable customers/suppliers until today.
Q2. I know that you also studied EMBA at Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. in Suzhou University in China after you finished GMBA. Why did you have the intention to get these further degrees? Are you really a bookworm or you just want to expand your personal network?
My intention to get these further degrees was to attempt my best effort of studying to the highest peak of excellence. I strongly believe there’s no limit on how much an individual can learn both in the workplace and in the educational field. To answer your last question, I believe I’m both a bookworm and I also would like to expand my personal network in China with both platforms in Suzhou University and Tsinghua University. I enjoy both times in the classroom participating in competitive group activities and outdoor field trips visiting fellow classmates’ corporations.
Q3. GMBA is somehow a place to cultivate seeds of love, you are one of the examples, although your wife was not from GMBA. Can you share your love story with us?
To me, life is like a box of chocolate, although my wife wasn’t from NTU GMBA, we still somehow met through the program. During my years at NTU GMBA, I was very fortunate to be selected as one of the very few students to receive a full-scholarship from Fubon Financials which offers an internship opportunity with the company. In the meantime, I was also very fortunate to be selected as one of the exchange students to go travel abroad to CUHK for a semi-annual exchange program. When my life was at an intersection, I was given both chances to head to HK or intern at a very nice financial company. My parents knowing that I will be having too much fun studying abroad in HK, recommended me to intern at Fubon Financials, which is literally a 1-minute walk from home. Therefore, in Fubon’s MA intern program, I met my beautiful wife. She was not only a year before me in Fubon’s MA program, but also was from NTU both undergrad and graduate school, which gave us a mutual connection.
Q4. After all these years, you see the growth and changes of GMBA. How do you see these changes? And as an alumnus, what do you expect from us now?
After graduating from the program 2009, I have witnessed the program improve every year. Newer generations are more demanding and knows what they want from the program. Back in our days, since the program only started two years ago, students were not familiar with how the program worked and we were too passive taking whatever was given to us. The GMBA program have grown better known in Taiwan; however, I believe the alumni should be more connected in many ways. Take me for example, I only knew alumnus from my year, the year before and after. As a fellow alumnus, I expect the school to assign personnel assist connecting alumni together tying bonds between different classes and business fields through multiple events. I believe the more well connected the alumni communities are, the better we can assist recognizing the program and assist promote the program to have higher quality candidates enrolling in the future.
