Patrick S.C. Wang

Patrick Shui Chung Wang has distinguished himself in the area of mechanical engineering and business.

Patrick S.C. Wang

He is the chairman and CEO of Johnson Electric, based in Hong Kong, China, with 32,000 employees worldwide.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Wang came to West Lafayette to attend Purdue and earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering in 1972. He returned to Hong Kong and joined the Johnson Electric Group, a company founded by his father, Seng Liang Wang, in 1959.

Patrick Wang became director of Johnson Electric in 1976, then managing director in 1984, when he listed the company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Under his leadership, the company has grown from $37 million to $1 billion in annual revenue.

Wang developed new, smaller and more efficient motors, targeted new markets, and turned the company into a world leader in the design, development, and delivery of a broad range of products used in automobile components, home applications, power tools, business equipment, personal products, and audiovisual. Johnson Electric is now a global leader in many micromotor market segments, shipping 2.5 million motors every day to customers throughout the world.

The principal manufacturing sites are located in China, with other production plants in Italy, Mexico, and Thailand. Johnson Electric has established engineering centers in Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, China, Germany, and the United States.

Wang also is a non-executive director of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Vtech Holdings, and Tristate Holdings. He is a member of the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, a member of the Hong Kong-United States Business Council, and a member of the General Committee of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.

Wang has received numerous awards, including Industrialist of the Year from the Federation of Hong Kong Industries in 2003, the Distinguished Pinnacle Award from Purdue in 2001, and Businessman of the Year from the "DHL/South China Morning Post" — Hong Kong in 1999.