NCKU Confers Honorary Doctorate on Chairman Bruce Cheng in Recognition of His Outstanding Achievements

Taipei, Taiwan, November 7, 2007 – In recognition of the outstanding contributions made to the development of the world's electronics industry by Delta Electronics Chairman Bruce Cheng, an award ceremony was held on November 7 at the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Library's B1 Auditorium. At the ceremony, NCKU President and Academician Michael Ming-chiao Lai presented Chairman Cheng with an honorary doctorate in engineering. During the presentation, President Lai highlighted Chairman Cheng's promotion of corporate social responsibility, support for the development of innovative high-efficiency products and long-time emphasis on green ideals. Through his efforts, Chairman Cheng has helped to improve the quality of life for all Mankind and has set an example for other enterprises to follow.

President Lai praised Chairman Cheng's accomplishments as being in the finest tradition of NCKU. His modesty, dedication and steadfast approach to business represent the best qualities of NCKU graduates. Having built his international electronics empire up from the ground, Chairman Cheng's philanthropy and contributions to his alma mater serve as a shining example to all NCKU people. His greatest achievement, however, is his dedication to a green planet. By realizing the concepts of environmental protection and energy conservation in his business operations, he has become more than just a great businessman, but also an upholder of scholarly values such as compassion for all living things. In his speech, President Lai emphasized that the entrepreneurship and leadership demonstrated by Chairman Cheng is something that all NCKU students and graduates should learn from.

Bruce Cheng has always played the role of "pioneer" and he is the godfather of Taiwan's electronics industry. A graduate of the NCKU Department of Electrical Engineering's 48th Class, he received the NCKU Outstanding Alumni Award in 1995. When Chairman Cheng founded Delta Electronics in 1971, it was just a small factory with 15 employees located in the Taipei suburb of Sinjhuang. The company has now developed into a multinational enterprise with over 60,000 employees. In 2006 the Delta Electronics Group's annual turnover was over US$4.2 Billion, making it the world's leader in switching power supplies and fan products.

Under Chairman Cheng's leadership, Delta Electronics was named the "Most Admired Enterprise in the Electronics Industry" by Commonwealth Magazine for six successive years, won the top "Corporate Social Responsibility Award" from Global Views magazine three years in a row and received Commonwealth Magazine's 1st "Corporate Citizen" award in 2007. Chairman Cheng was also named "Most Admired Entrepreneur" in a 2007 survey of the business community.

Though Chairman Cheng is kept busy managing the company he founded, he does have one "diversion" – "environmental protection". Energy conservation and environmental protection are particularly important issues for him. Even the company's mission is "to provide innovative energy-saving products for a better quality of life". Within the company, "Care for the Environment, Energy-saving and Our Green Earth" are practiced on a daily basis while R&D efforts are focused on developing more environmentally friendly and energy-saving products. Delta Electronics also created the world's first company-wide "Green Map" project and the "Green Factory" he commissioned at the Tainan Science Park was rated by the Ministry of the Interior as Taiwan's first "Gold-rated Green Building" in August 2006. In January 2007, he donated NT$100 Million to NCKU for the construction of the new Y.S. Sun Green Building Research Center, which is planned to be Taiwan's first "Diamond-rated" green building.

Chairman Cheng, however, exemplifies NCKU qualities such as modesty and steadfastness, and prefers to keep his philanthropy as low-key as possible. In 2000, he established the Y.S. Sun Technology Lectures with a contribution to National Tsing Hua University; in 2001, he endowed NCKU with one million shares of Delta Electronics stock to establish the K.T. Li Technology Lectureship; in 2005, he contributed to the building of the new K.T. Li Research and Development Center at National Central University; and in 2007, he made an endowment to NCKU for the construction of the Y.S. Sun Green Building Research Center. Though each of these endowments was worth over NT$100 million, Chairman Cheng insisted on naming them after former premiers K.T. Li and Y.S. Sun. His choice to commemorate others rather than promote his own accomplishments is a demonstration of selflessness that we can all learn from.

There has been a total of 11 recipients of honorary doctoral degrees from NCKU in recent years, including the President of the Academia Sinica Wu Ta-yu, the President of the Academia Sinica Lee Yuan-tsu, Presidential Advisor Sun Yun-hsuan, Presidential Advisor Li Kuo-ting, Presidential National Policy Advisor Wu Hsiu-chi, Author of Taiwanese literature Ye Shih-tao, Academician Ku Yu-hsiu, Chairman of the President Group Kao Ching-yuan, Academician Feng Yuan-chen, TSMC Chairman Morris Chang and Delta Electronics Chairman Bruce Cheng.