He will continue as an advisor to the chairman of TSMC

Sep 30, 2013 18:06 GMT  ·  By

As odd as it may sound, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has three chief operating officers. One of them is leaving though.

Shang-yi Chiang, in addition to being a Co-COO, leads the Research & Development department. He has announced that he will retire on October 31, 2013, leaving the R&D organization to report directly to Chairman and CEO Morris Chang.

After growing the R&D department from less than 400 to 7,600 since 1997, he must feel his contribution in that area cannot expand anymore.

Of course, he thought so before, back in 2006, when he retired the first time, but Chang invited him back in 2009.

TSMC has had three Co-COOs since March 2012, as part of the CEO's succession plan. Chang wants to pass on the CEO role by mid-2014, and one of the remaining COOs will take his place (TSMC's Head of Operations Mark Liu and Business Development Chief CC Wei).