14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS or Asustek CFO David Chang (Chief Financial Officer) is dead. Chang who doubled as spokesman for the company fell to an illness at the age 50 leaving behind two kids.
Apparently, Asustek acting spokesman Nick Lee said rumors were that David Chang died while working past midnight at company headquarters. Although dramatic, these rumors have been denied by Asustek later.
The leading PC manufacturer said that Chang, who has just returned from a business trip to China on Wednesday, passed away at his home on Thursday evening. No other details were disclosed by the company as the privacy of his family must be preserved.
David Chang was a veteran member in the company's top brass, being a key stakeholder when the company made the public offering in 1996 and when the company spun off its computer-related contract manufacturing unit, Pegatron Corp in 2007.
Rumor has it he died from exhaustion
Chang started work at ASUS twenty-one years ago in its financial department in 1994 after was established in 1989. He was promoted to CFO position in 2006 by Jonney Shih, the ex-CEO of ASUS, and in 2013 its lead marketing officer.
Playing a key role in driving ASUS' smartphone business launching the ZenFone series, David Chang was seen as a person often leaving in business trips over the past few years and being overworked on a daily basis. Taipei Times says that during a visit to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January last year, Chang almost fainted in his hotel room after attending a series of meetings and teleconferences with colleagues in Taiwan due to a lack of sleep.
There were numerous rumors of exhaustion and many believe that overwork played a part in his death. Although Asustek acting spokesman Nick Lee said that finding a new CFO would take months to find, the board will finally convene on a suitable successor. The death will not affect the firm's operations, proof is that Asustek shares rose 2.46 percent to NT$292 in Taipei trading yesterday.