ITRI President Edwin Liu: Insights from Taiwan’s Technology Development Advisor
What’s it like to manage 6,000 employees, oversee research across dozens of disciplines, and steer a country's technological development? Dr. Edwin Liu, the president of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), faces this challenge every day.
30 Years in the U.S. as an Electrical Engineer
With an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University, Edwin Liu brings a wealth of knowledge to his role. After living in the United States for 30 years and holding positions such as Senior Vice President at Nexant, Vice President at Quanta Technology, and Senior Manager at Bechtel R&D, Liu returned to Taiwan in 2018 to become ITRI president.
“The opportunity came. You cannot plan for it, right?” he says.
Tech, Energy, and AI Challenges Facing Taiwan
As Taiwan grapples with whether its energy supply can support its ambitious AI and tech development goals, Liu seems uniquely qualified to tackle these challenges head-on. He notes, “Over the past 50 years, at each stage of Taiwan's economic growth, ITRI played different roles. It depends on what we need to do to help the government, to help the industry.”
ITRI employs thousands of scientists and operates numerous laboratories, conducting research in diverse fields such as textiles, biomedicine, and green energy. While some subjects extend beyond Liu’s expertise, he believes problem-solving is a universal scientific language. “You don't have to know every single detail, but you have to know how to put things together. That's the key,” he states.
One issue Liu addresses is Taiwan’s low birthrate and the resulting labor shortage. ITRI needs highly skilled, well-trained workers and must compete with the higher-paying private sector for this talent. Liu doesn’t want to attract people solely with high salaries. Instead, he believes flexibility and career growth opportunities are what truly matter. “We provide a growth opportunity so that if you are fresh out of school, you can grow in different disciplines or different areas. For the experienced people, we provide sufficient freedom for them,” he explains.
Taiwan’s Technology Development Advisor
As President of ITRI, Liu is regarded as an advisor steering Taiwan’s technological advancement. He emphasizes the importance of setting long-term goals and making concrete plans, stressing the need to regularly revisit and update them due to the fast-paced nature of technological advancement. Liu mentioned that shortly after developing a 2030 strategic roadmap, they refreshed it to align with a new 2035 technology roadmap.
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An Act of Service
Reflecting on his return to Taiwan to take up this post, Liu says, "I had never worked in Taiwan, so that was the first major culture shock." Having spent more than half of his life in the United States, Liu acknowledges that readjusting to life in Taiwan required adaptation. "Number 2, I had been in the private sector, and coming to this semi-government organization, I had to deal with a lot of government policies."
Being ITRI president is “an act of service” to Taiwan, and Liu sees sharing his valuable experience as a way of contributing to his home country. “My passion to help Taiwan…that's very important. I also like to share my experience with whatever I learned in the U.S. to make ITRI a better organization.” In his seventh year as ITRI President, Edwin Liu is solidifying Taiwan’s reputation as a high-tech leader with a focus on long-term planning and problem-solving.
Watch the full interview here:
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