It is this structural gap that L’AcceleratOR, an initiative led by L’Oréal Groupe in partnership with the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), has set out to address. Rather than concentrating on the generation of ideas, the programme engages with a more demanding and ultimately more consequential challenge: the conditions under which innovation becomes operational, embedded within supply chains, adopted by incumbents, and capable of sustaining commercial relevance at scale.

In a recent conversation with The Icons, Viola Jardon, Head of Innovation Programmes at CISL, articulated this distinction with clarity. The success of an innovation, she argues, is not defined by its ingenuity in isolation, but by its capacity to be absorbed into the systems it seeks to influence. Transformation, in this sense, is less a function of invention than of integration, determined by whether a solution can move beyond conceptual promise and withstand the practical, often unforgiving realities of industrial deployment.

From Commitment to System-Level Action

As sustainability consolidates its position at the centre of corporate strategy, a more consequential shift is taking place. What began as a response to external pressures has evolved into a redefinition of how value is conceived and created within the firm. It is within this reframed context that L’AcceleratOR has emerged, not as a conventional accelerator, but as a platform designed to test whether innovation can operate within the constraints and complexities of real industrial systems.

“If we were to describe it in CISL’s terms, what we are seeing is a shift from managing risk to redesigning systems,” said Viola Jardon. “In the past, sustainability was often treated as a matter of compliance or risk mitigation. Today, climate, resource constraints and broader societal challenges are understood as systemic risks, ones that, if left unaddressed, will fundamentally undermine long- term business models.”

The implications are structural rather than incremental. This transition requires companies to move beyond optimisation at the margins and towards a more fundamental reconsideration of how value is generated. It also brings into sharper focus a more immediate and practical question: how businesses can sustain growth and remain competitive within a low-carbon, resource-constrained and increasingly volatile environment.

“Leading companies are no longer asking how to become ‘more sustainable’,” Jardon observed. “They are asking a more fundamental question: how do we continue to grow within this new reality?” That question sits at the core of L’AcceleratOR’s design, and reflects a broader inquiry into how global leaders navigate transformation as a structural condition, rather than a temporary response.

The Systemic Barriers to Scaling Innovation

At first sight, the principal challenge confronting sustainable innovation appears to lie in the pursuit of technological breakthroughs. Considered from a systems perspective, however, the constraint is of a different order. A significant number of solutions have already reached technical maturity, yet continue to fall short of widespread adoption, indicating that the underlying obstacle is not invention, but integration.

“We often say that the greatest challenge is not a lack of innovation, but the fact that innovation is not embedded within systems,” said Viola Jardon. “Many solutions are technically ready, but they are not adopted at scale because they do not align with how businesses and markets actually operate, whether in procurement, supply chains, regulation, cost structures, or internal decision- making processes.”

Her observation underscores a persistent disconnect between innovation and implementation. From the perspective of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, for innovation to generate meaningful impact it must satisfy three conditions simultaneously: technical viability, commercial viability and system viability. The absence of any one is sufficient to limit its trajectory. Without integration into the system, even the most sophisticated solutions struggle to deliver durable change.

This pattern is well established. In its ongoing engagement with founders and industry leaders, The Icons has consistently observed that the decisive factor is seldom the quality of the innovation itself, but whether it can be adopted, financed and operationalised within the structures it seeks to reshape.

Embedding Innovation into Industry

Set against this broader shift, the logic underpinning L’AcceleratOR comes into sharper focus. The programme is not designed simply to cultivate early-stage ventures, but to address a more persistent structural gap: the distance between promising innovation and its practical adoption within industry. Its emphasis lies in enabling solutions to move beyond demonstration and into operational reality, where they can be tested, adapted and ultimately scaled within existing systems.

“The original intention behind L’AcceleratOR is to address a fundamental question: how do we move sustainable transformation from commitment to scalable action?” said Viola Jardon. “We see a strong willingness among companies to transition, yet the number of solutions that can be identified, validated and integrated into global value chains remains limited.”

It is at this juncture that the collaboration between the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and industry becomes consequential. From its inception, L’AcceleratOR has been structured with a markedly different set of priorities from conventional accelerators. The objective is not simply to support growth in isolation, but to ensure that innovation is developed in direct relation to the operational realities of large organisations.

“If I were to summarise it in one sentence, I would say that L’AcceleratOR is a platform oriented towards deployment rather than growth,” Jardon observed. “We do not begin with technology; we begin with industry need, and place strong emphasis on embedding solutions within real corporate and value chain contexts.”

Within this framework, the definition of innovation itself is recalibrated. It is no longer judged solely by the novelty or performance of a product, but by its capacity to function within, and ultimately influence, the systems it seeks to transform.

From Product Development to System Change

For the teams selected, the value of L’AcceleratOR lies less in access or visibility than in a more fundamental shift in capability. As solutions are tested within real-world systems, founders are required to move beyond product development and engage with the operational complexity of industry.

“The most significant change is not a single opportunity, but a shift in capability,” said Viola Jardon. “Teams move from developing a product to understanding how to drive change within a complex system.”

This shift is necessarily multi-dimensional. It demands an ability to work with large corporates, to align with procurement and operational constraints, and to design models that can be deployed across markets. Once established, entry into global markets becomes less a question of access and more one of readiness.

It is a decisive inflection point. In practice, the adoption of innovation at scale is rarely determined by technical merit alone, but by whether it can function within, and contribute to, the systems it is intended to reshape.

Opportunities for Chinese Innovators: Scale Advantage and Global Complexity

From a global perspective, China has established a clear competitive edge in sustainable innovation. That advantage is not defined by technology alone, but by the scale, integration and efficiency of its broader industrial system, which enables solutions to be developed, tested and deployed at pace.

“China demonstrates three distinct advantages: its ability to scale, its depth of industrial integration, and the speed of market-driven innovation,” said Viola Jardon.

In this context, China functions not only as a source of innovation, but as a critical amplifier in the global transition. Yet as Chinese teams expand beyond domestic markets, they encounter a markedly more complex environment, shaped by differences in regulation, culture, infrastructure and competitive dynamics.

“There is no universal solution that can be applied across markets,” Jardon observed. “Differences in culture, regulation, competitive landscapes and infrastructure all shape how a solution can be deployed.”

Those that succeed internationally are seldom the ones that attempt to replicate their domestic models without adjustment. More often, they are teams capable of adapting their approach, recalibrating their value proposition and operating effectively across divergent systems. It is precisely this capability that L’AcceleratOR is designed to develop.

Entering the System: Why Waiting Is No Longer an Option

As the discussion draws to a close, Viola Jardon offers a perspective that cuts through much of the hesitation surrounding innovation and scale.

“Systems do not change on their own. Change comes from those who are willing to step into them.”

She challenges a familiar instinct among founders, the tendency to wait until every variable has been resolved before acting. In the context of sustainable transformation, such completeness is neither realistic nor necessary.

“Many founders wait until they feel completely ready. But in the context of sustainable transformation, no one is ever fully ready. What matters more is whether you are willing to test your solution within a global context, to work across industries and cultures, and to continuously adapt within complex systems.”

The implication is a reframing of readiness itself. It is not a condition to be achieved in advance, but a capability developed through engagement. The more pertinent question is no longer whether a solution is fully formed, but whether it is sufficiently robust to be placed within the environments where it can be tested, refined and made consequential.

Viola Jardon currently serves as Head of Innovation Programmes at CISL, where her work centres on building cross-sector partnerships, designing accelerator frameworks and shaping innovation ecosystems. With more than two decades of international experience spanning Asia and the UK, she

has focused on bridging global innovation systems while addressing structural disparities in access to venture networks.

Her contributions to startup acceleration and sustainable innovation have been widely recognised. She is a recipient of the SME News Award 2025, was named in the edie 100 as one of the UK’s most impactful sustainability leaders in 2026, and was a finalist for the Asian Women of Achievement Awards. She is also a TEDx speaker.

Applications for the L’AcceleratOR programme are now open. Interested teams are invited to consult the official application page for further details and submission guidelines. The deadline for this round is 6 May 2026 at 15:00 Beijing time.

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In this year’s fourth TIRI Awards, five companies received the Best Investor Relations Award. Among them, the “Listed Category” winners were Delta Electronics, Chenbro Micom, and Visual Photonics Epitaxy; the “TPEx Category” winners were AURAS Technology and JARLLYTEC. The judging criteria for the TIRI Awards are highly credible: companies must first rank in the top 35% of the TWSE Corporate Governance Evaluation, maintain good market liquidity over a specified period, and ultimately be selected through a vote by domestic and foreign institutional investors, fund managers, and financial media.

What set these winners apart in a volatile market was their ability to build stable, verifiable trust with investors through long‑term, transparent, and consistent information disclosure. Looking at the development paths of these five companies, each demonstrated the capability to integrate sustainability goals with core business operations in the face of dual challenges from ESG regulations and industrial upgrades. This turned information disclosure from a mere compliance exercise into a source of competitive advantage.

“This solid achievement comes from a challenging start,” said Jonny Zong-Lin Guo, Chairman of TIRI. “The National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) in the U.S. has been around for half a century, but in Taiwan, investor relations was long seen as a secondary function, lacking institutional and community support.”

As the official media partner, The Icons documented the industrial shifts on site and conducted in‑depth interviews with three representative winners: listed category winner Delta Electronics, and TPEx category winners AURAS Technology and JARLLYTEC. Cheng Hsiang‑I, Associate Manager of Investor Relations at Delta Electronics, explained how internal carbon pricing drives organizational decisions; Kelly Chen, Manager of the Chairman’s Office at AURAS Technology, revealed the market strategy behind liquid cooling technology; and Daniel Liao, IR and Deputy Spokesperson at JARLLYTEC, shared the communication logic behind a traditional component manufacturer’s transition to higher value‑added products.

Through the practices of these three companies, we see that when IR evolves from information disclosure to strategic communication, its essence is no longer just responding to the market but actively building a language that helps the capital market understand a company’s long‑term value. This capability is precisely the foundation that enables Taiwanese technology companies to continue advancing in global competition.

Cheng Hsiang‑I, Associate Manager of Investor Relations at Delta Electronics: Internalizing energy saving and carbon reduction as a core competitiveness that drives growth

Delta Electronics, winner of the “Best IR Enterprise” award in the listed mega‑cap category, stood out among rigorous quantitative indicators and foreign investor votes because it transformed sustainability governance from paper promises into concrete actions. While many companies still view ESG as a heavy compliance burden or feel anxious about upcoming evaluation changes, Delta has turned it into a growth engine, tightly linking carbon reduction targets with internal operations.

Delta has established a strict internal carbon pricing mechanism, charging each business unit a carbon fee of US$300 per metric ton for emissions generated during manufacturing. “Energy saving and carbon reduction is not just a cost; it is also a core competitiveness,” said Cheng Hsiang‑I. This internal fund, which does not affect external financial reports, becomes a powerful support for green power procurement and energy efficiency projects. Through this transparent and disciplined system, Delta demonstrates its governance commitment, embedding carbon reduction into the decision‑making DNA of every business unit head.

Looking at the global technology ecosystem, infrastructure energy consumption has become a bottleneck hindering rapid AI development. Delta focuses on improving energy conversion efficiency. Cheng noted that saving one kilowatt‑hour of electricity is often easier than generating one, and that is where component suppliers can make a difference. “We may not always be the most visible player at the forefront, but our presence allows every key link in the system to operate more accurately and stably.” Delta’s pragmatic technology deployment has earned it an irreplaceable position in global supply chains and forms a solid foundation for the capital market’s high regard.

Kelly Chen, Manager of the Chairman’s Office at AURAS Technology: Breaking through AI computing’s thermal bottlenecks with extreme liquid cooling technology

AURAS Technology, winner of the “Best IR Enterprise” award in the TPEx large‑cap category, earned high recognition from the capital market through its focused, decade‑long investment in cooling technology. While most of the market still relied on air cooling, AURAS resolutely invested in liquid cooling R&D. From laptops and servers to today’s hottest AI chips, AURAS has maintained a rhythm of entering new markets every three to five years, ultimately tackling the extreme thermal challenges brought by generational shifts in chips.

As computing chip power consumption grows exponentially, end customers’ technical demands become increasingly stringent. “Today you help a customer solve a 1.4 kW GPU; two years ago they asked you to research 3 kW, and now they ask you to study 7‑8 kW liquid‑cooled chips,” said Kelly Chen. Faced with such enormous R&D pressure, AURAS did not choose diversification. Instead, it concentrated resources to perfect its cooling solutions, even expanding into the manufacture of vapor chambers for semiconductor processes, all to get closer to the heat source and master the core cooling technology.

AURAS’s relentless pursuit of technical depth stems from its internal pragmatic engineering culture and strong execution capability that treats customer pain points as its own. The company adheres to the core management principle of “investigation of things”, requiring teams to explore the fundamental physics behind any technical bottleneck. Amid geopolitical volatility and headwinds, AURAS always insists on sincere, transparent information disclosure as the foundation for dialogue. Even when stock prices were dragged down by external factors, the company won the votes of domestic and foreign institutional investors through its high‑standard corporate governance and solid technology roadmap.

Daniel Liao, IR and Deputy Spokesperson at JARLLYTEC: Building market trust through transparent communication to drive high‑value transformation

JARLLYTEC, winner of the “Best IR Enterprise” award in the TPEx small‑to‑mid cap category, has actively moved into high‑value‑added areas such as foldable phone hinges and optical fiber connectors over the past two years, successfully driving record revenues. The company’s significant investment in building investor relations, combined with strong operations, earned it the favor of professional investors in the voting process.

Trust in the capital market cannot be built overnight. “Investor relations is a long‑term mindset; we want to compound trust like rolling a snowball,” Daniel Liao stated. Led by the finance team, JARLLYTEC proactively disclosed its transformation roadmap and ESG strategy to the market, completing group‑wide carbon inventories ahead of schedule, replacing high‑energy‑consumption equipment on a large scale, and beginning the process of joining the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). By turning regulatory pressure into transparent communication material, JARLLYTEC demonstrated its ambition to align with international standards and successfully secured long‑term confidence from institutional investors.

Facing the wave of global supply chain restructuring, JARLLYTEC’s concrete actions show high operational resilience. Externally, it expanded production capacity in Southeast Asia to mitigate geopolitical risks; internally, it invested heavily in fully automated equipment at its Taipei plant, effectively controlling manufacturing costs while redeploying freed‑up human resources to advanced R&D and design. Through close collaboration with international brand customers on product development schedules, JARLLYTEC has accumulated more than 500 patents, transforming pure capacity‑based OEM into technology with pricing power, setting a new benchmark for industrial upgrading among small and medium‑sized manufacturers.

Beyond Cost‑Driven Competition: How Taiwan Becomes the Hidden Pivot Driving Global Technology

From Delta Electronics’ fundamental restructuring of energy efficiency, to AURAS Technology’s breakthrough in extreme computing heat dissipation, to JARLLYTEC’s high‑value transformation driven by transparent communication – these three winners collectively outline a new competitive mindset for the industry. Taiwan’s technology manufacturing sector has long moved beyond the old era of winning orders through economies of scale and price wars. Instead, it intertwines ESG compliance, deep technical expertise, and the trust of professional investors to build resilient long‑term advantages.

Facing the urgent demands of global supply chain restructuring and net‑zero carbon emissions, the procurement and investment logic of multinational companies has been completely transformed. Low prices are no longer the key to success; instead, it is a company’s comprehensive ability to solve complex technical problems and withstand risks. Today’s leading Taiwanese companies are embedding themselves into the underlying architecture of high‑end computing and green energy through technology deployment and transparent governance standards. In the future international market, a dual strategy combining strong technical capabilities with capital communication skills will be the greatest principle for Taiwan’s technology cluster to defend its global voice.

From the early difficulties of promoting investor relations concepts in Taiwan to the successful establishment of a credible evaluation system and professional community, TIRI Chairman Jonny Zong‑Lin Guo has worked tirelessly over the past seven years to transform IR from a secondary administrative function into a core driver of corporate value growth. Watching more and more Taiwanese technology companies successfully break through in international capital markets through transparent communication and sustainable practices, he offered the most profound conclusion for this seven‑year transformation journey:

“Looking back on seven years of effort, TIRI has always been rooted in professionalism and built bridges of trust connecting companies, investors, and the capital market. Looking ahead, TIRI will continue to deepen IR talent development, promote corporate governance and ESG practices, and actively align with international standards, bringing Taiwan’s investor relations profession onto the global stage as a key force for the sustainable development of capital markets.”

As the interaction between industry and the capital market grows ever closer, the TIRI Awards are no longer just an annual recognition but are gradually becoming an important indicator for observing how Taiwanese companies build market trust. The next question worth watching is not just who wins, but which companies can continue to accumulate long‑term trust through transparency, discipline, and strategic communication in an increasingly complex global environment.

The fifth TIRI Awards in 2026 have already entered the planning phase, with the Annual Conference and Awards Ceremony scheduled for October 16 at the Regent Taipei. As the capital market continues to reshape its evaluation criteria, the companies that take the stage next year will not only be top performers but also key players that redefine “how corporate value is understood.”

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Q: ESG has become a central topic for companies worldwide. From your perspective, what has really changed in recent years?

What has changed most is the expectation. ESG is no longer something companies talk about at board level and then delegate to a small team. Today, it affects how people work, communicate, and make decisions across the organisation.

Many companies understand the importance of ESG, but the real challenge now is practical: how do you make sure teams actually understand what it means for their daily work? That’s where the conversation has shifted.

Q: The BCCT Better Business Awards are now in their ninth year. What role do they play in Taiwan’s business landscape?

The Better Business Awards have become a platform for recognising companies that are genuinely leading by example. Over the years, we’ve seen how powerful recognition can be in encouraging higher standards and sharing best practice.

But just as importantly, the Awards convene a community — business leaders, policymakers, educators, and sponsors — who care about long-term value, not just short-term performance. That convening role is something BCCT takes very seriously.

Q: Why was it important to go beyond awards and launch the ESG Talent Masterclass?

Awards show us what good looks like. But many companies then ask, “How do we get there ourselves?”

The ESG Talent Masterclass is a natural extension of the Awards. It takes real examples, lessons, and insights from award-winning companies and translates them into learning that people can actually use. The goal is simple: help organisations put ESG into everyday business practice.

Q: Sponsors play a prominent role in the Better Business Awards. What do you think motivates them to support the platform?

Our sponsors are not passive supporters. They are organisations that believe leadership comes with responsibility.

By sponsoring the Awards, they are making a statement — not only about what they value, but about the standards they want to see across the wider business community. In many cases, these sponsors are already operating at the front line of sustainability, governance, energy transition, education, or talent development. Their involvement reinforces credibility.

Q: You often say that ESG ultimately depends on people. What do companies tend to underestimate here?

People underestimate how much ESG is a communication challenge.

Policies and frameworks matter, but if teams cannot clearly talk about ESG, explain it to colleagues, or work with international partners on these topics, then progress stalls. ESG lives in meetings, emails, presentations, and daily decisions — not just reports.

Q: TutorABC is best known for language education. Why does it make sense for TutorABC to be involved in ESG talent development?

Because language is the working tool of global business.

TutorABC has always focused on helping professionals use language to achieve real business outcomes. ESG today requires teams to communicate clearly across borders, cultures, and functions. Whether it’s working with headquarters, global clients, or international partners, shared understanding is critical.

From that perspective, ESG talent development is a very natural extension of what we already do.

Q: How does language connect to ESG in practical terms?

If people cannot clearly explain ESG goals, discuss challenges, or align expectations, then ESG remains abstract.

Language enables clarity, confidence, and collaboration. It allows teams to move from intention to action. That’s why we see education — particularly practical, work-focused learning — as the final mile of ESG.

Q: The Awards bring together sponsors from energy, finance, law, education, and culture. Why is this ecosystem approach important?

Because sustainability is not solved by one sector alone.

Energy transition, governance, wellbeing, education, and communication are all interconnected. When sponsors from different industries come together on one platform, it creates a more complete picture of what responsible leadership looks like in practice.

That diversity is a real strength of the Better Business Awards.

Q: You lead both an international chamber and a global education company. How do these roles influence each other?

They reinforce the same belief: long-term success depends on people, systems, and standards.

At BCCT, we focus on promoting trade, investment, and international best practice. At TutorABC, we focus on developing people who can operate confidently in global environments. Both roles are ultimately about enabling others to succeed.

Q: Looking ahead, what do you hope the Better Business Awards and ESG Talent Masterclass will achieve?

I hope they continue to raise standards and build confidence.

If companies walk away thinking, “This feels achievable,” and sponsors feel proud to be associated with meaningful progress, then we’re doing the right thing. ESG shouldn’t feel intimidating. With the right partners, education, and leadership, it becomes part of how good businesses operate every day.

Conclusion

As ESG expectations rise, the challenge is moving from defining standards to delivering them in practice. The Better Business Awards recognise organisations setting the benchmark, while the ESG Talent Masterclass focuses on helping others reach it.

For the CEO of TutorABC, lasting impact depends less on policy than on people — their ability to understand standards, communicate clearly, and apply them in daily work.

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At the heart of the BBA are its sponsor partners — organisations that do more than support an event, and instead help define the standards of responsible business in Taiwan.

BCCT Chairman Sam Yang emphasised that sponsorship of the BBA reflects leadership through action. In an interview with global leadership media The Icons, he noted:

“Our sponsors are not passive supporters. They are organisations that are actively shaping how sustainability, governance, and social responsibility are implemented in real businesses.”

Vicki Wu, Executive Director of BCCT, added: “The Better Business Awards bring together companies that are committed to making responsible business practical and visible. Our sponsors play a critical role in supporting this platform and in demonstrating leadership that goes beyond words.”

Driving the Energy Transition

Companies sponsoring sustainability and green energy awards are those operating directly at the front line of transition. 

Organisations such as Cadeler, PKR Offshore, and Taylor Hopkinson support awards that reflect their daily work in offshore wind, green infrastructure, and renewable-energy talent development.

Their involvement signals that sustainability is not a side initiative, but core to how these businesses operate and grow.

Governance, Law, and Financial Stability

Responsible business also depends on strong systems and safeguards.

Sponsors such as HSBC, Eiger, and PCA Life Assurance support awards recognising leadership, legal frameworks, and innovation for wellbeing — reinforcing the role of finance, regulation, and people-centred policy in long-term sustainability.

Education, Talent, and Global Exchange

Sustainability ultimately depends on people.

The co-sponsorship of the UK Alumni ESG & Education Impact Award by British Council, The Icons, and TutorABC highlights the importance of education, communication, and skills development in turning ESG commitments into action.

Samuel Yang, who is also Co-Chairman and CEO of TutorABC, noted, “Education is the final mile. Without people who can understand, communicate, and implement ESG, sustainability remains a policy, not a practice.”

More Than Sponsorship

The Better Business Awards are not only about recognition, but about convening organisations that are willing to lead by example.

BCCT extends its thanks to all sponsors for their commitment and invites globally minded enterprises to engage with future Awards — as applicants, partners, or supporters — and play an active role in shaping the future of responsible business in Taiwan.

About the British Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (BCCT)

For over 30 years, the British Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (BCCT) has represented the interests of the British and international business community in Taiwan. BCCT promotes trade, investment, and commercial cooperation between the United Kingdom and Taiwan, and supports engagement across business, culture, and education through its programmes and network.

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In an interview with《The Icons》APAC, a UK-based media outlet focusing on global leadership influence, Guo described the atmosphere at that moment not as boisterous, but as a grounded feeling of “knowing which direction to take”:

“This sense of assurance actually stems from a rather challenging starting point. The National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) in the United States has already traversed half a century. However, in Taiwan, investor relations has long been regarded as a subsidiary function, lacking institutional support and a professional community.”

It was against this backdrop in 2018 that Guo, together with several corporate spokespersons and CFOs, founded TIRI. Without corporate sponsorship or existing resources, what sustained the association’s initial progress was merely a shared belief in professional value. Guo consistently emphasized that the most difficult part of establishing an association is not the initial step, but ensuring its long-term sustainability. Only when value is institutionalized can the profession endure beyond personnel changes. This idea gradually became the most important consensus within the association and laid the foundation for TIRI’s development direction.

Looking back seven years later, TIRI is no longer just a collection of advocates but has become a professional community recognized by the market and responded to by the system. The discussions among association members have also evolved from “how to communicate information clearly” to “how to integrate investor relations into the decision-making layer.”

From Disclosure to Governance: The Repositioning of the IR Role

As the association gradually took shape, the first issue to emerge was precisely the position of IR within corporate governance. Reflecting on the association’s development, Kevin Wang, Vice Chairman of TIRI and Chairman of Nanchang Creative Sensor Technology Co., Ltd., pointed out that while Taiwanese companies have made significant progress in the completeness of information disclosure, IR is still often misunderstood as a one-way communication tool.

In his view, investor relations is a governance discipline that combines professional ethics and international standards. It involves not just explaining information, but building long-term trust. For this reason, he hopes that while aligning with international practices, the association can gradually become a platform for corporate governance exchange, allowing institutional dialogue to transcend mere regulatory compliance.

This governance perspective is also reflected in the overall structure of the capital market. Freddie Liu, Executive Director of TIRI and Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer & Deputy Spokesperson of TPK Holding Co., Ltd., also pointed out that the association is playing a bridging role between Taiwan and the international capital market. By facilitating information flow and professional dialogue, IR not only serves companies but is also influencing the overall perception of Taiwan in the market.

Observing from an institutional level, Jack M. Chang, Executive Director of TIRI and Vice President of Finance at Allgenesis Biotherapeutics Inc., noted that while the corporate governance evaluation system has continuously evolved in recent years, many companies still view IR as part of the disclosure process rather than as an integral part of the governance structure. He believes the association should more actively act as a communication node between enterprises and regulatory authorities, enabling IR to truly enter the governance system rather than remaining in a peripheral role.

Industry Experience and International Narrative: Enabling Taiwan to Be Truly Understood

As the governance role becomes clearer, another key point repeatedly mentioned is international communication. Andy Chien, Executive Director of TIRI and Head of the Corporate Governance Center & Spokesperson of TECO Electric & Machinery Co., Ltd., pointed out that Taiwanese companies possess high resilience and innovation capabilities in the global market, but there is still room for deepening their capital narrative and international communication.

This challenge manifests in different forms across various industries. Fu-Fu Shen, Director of TIRI and former Deputy Head of the Finance Division & Deputy Spokesperson of Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., believes that the association itself must maintain a high level of knowledge flow. Through case sharing and workshops, experiences scattered across different industries can be organized, accumulated, and gradually transformed into transferable professional knowledge.

From a corporate operational standpoint, Nan-Hao Lin, Director of TIRI and General Manager of Chi Shan Long Feng Food Co., Ltd., pointed out that for Taiwanese companies to establish a firm foothold in the international capital market, the key lies not in technology, but in the ability to speak a language that investors understand. In his view, the association is precisely the vital platform to assist companies in completing this crucial task of translation.

Education and Talent: The Key to Institutional Sustainability

As the system gradually takes form, the association has come to realize that “people” are the key to its long-term continuation. Cash Hong, Director of TIRI and Manager of the Investor Relations Division at JPP Holding Company Limited, views IR education as a long-term responsibility. He promotes a localized IR cultivation program, hoping to enable companies in central and southern Taiwan, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, to participate in international market dialogue, preventing the system from being concentrated only among a few large corporations.

Regarding institutionalized education, Tina Chang, Director of TIRI and Department Head of Investor Relations & Deputy Spokesperson at Compal Electronics, Inc., pointed out that the association has released the Chinese version of the “Investor Relations Body of Knowledge” and held the inaugural TIRIC certification course. This is more than just the launch of educational materials; it is a crucial step towards establishing a common language for the IR profession.

On a practical level for companies going global, Peter Chang, Director of TIRI, Special Assistant to the Chairman & Spokesperson of Lelon Electronics Corp., reminds that for companies to truly “compete on a world stage,” they cannot remain solely in the Taiwanese market; they must achieve comprehensive integration with international capital markets, governance structures, and professional systems.

Starting from the practice of corporate communication, Frank Wang, Director of TIRI and former Senior Manager of the Public Relations Department & Spokesperson at AVerMedia Technologies, Inc., pointed out that investor relations is not just an information disclosure process but a bridge for building long-term trust between a company and the market. If companies wish to enhance their international visibility, they must simultaneously strengthen their IR professional capabilities and media narrative strategies, allowing corporate value to be understood by the market in a transparent and compelling manner. He believes the association should continue to promote a corporate co-learning mechanism, transforming IR expertise from individual company experience into a shared institutional asset for the industry.

Continuing the discussion on talent development, Nancy Hsu, Director of TIRI, Special Assistant to the President & Spokesperson of FineTek Co., Ltd., pointed out that IR involves multiple facets including finance, legal affairs, communications, and sustainability. Without long-term training and further education, it is difficult to form a genuine professional community. She hopes the association can establish a more comprehensive training framework, providing a clear career path for talent.

Sustainability and Trust: The Ultimate Destination of Governance Culture

As systems and talent gradually fall into place, sustainability is no longer just an ancillary issue but has become part of the governance culture. Tom Huang, Director of TIRI and Head of the Investor Relations & Sustainability Office at Sitronix Technology Corp., points out that the association’s role extends beyond education; it also involves facilitating institutional dialogue between regulatory bodies and the market, fostering positive interaction between policy and practice.

Within the context of the technology industry, Ant Lan, Director of TIRI and General Manager of Algoltek, Inc., also notes that Taiwan’s technological capabilities have long been world-class. The real challenge lies in how to translate these achievements into a governance narrative that international investors can understand.

From a corporate sustainability governance perspective, Nick Huang, Director of TIRI and Manager of the Investor Relations & Sustainability Committee at Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., emphasizes that only by centering on transparency and openness can investors perceive a company’s long-term commitment through its governance mechanisms.

Observing from the supervisors’ group, Wen-Chun Yao, Supervisor of TIRI and Special Assistant to the Chairman & Spokesperson of FSP TECHNOLOGY INC., believes the association should further guide policy advocacy, fostering synergy between the government and industry.

Julia Chen, Supervisor of TIRI and Chief Sustainability Officer of Lining-ESG Corporation, points out that true sustainability is not an additional burden but a natural outcome of a mature governance culture.

Similarly from a governance standpoint, Paul Yeh, Supervisor of TIRI and Associate Manager of the Administration Department & Spokesperson at USERJOY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD., emphasizes that enhancing the overall investor relations literacy is equivalent to improving the quality of Taiwan’s capital market.

Echo Wan, Supervisor of TIRI and Independent Director of Complex Micro Interconnection Co.,Ltd., adds that by introducing international IR standards and practices, Taiwanese companies can demonstrate a more mature governance profile in the global market.

From System to Culture: A Path Taking Shape

At the advisory level, David Yang, Honorary Advisor of TIRI and Managing Director of the Securities Analysts Association Chinese Taipei, cautions that many boards still view IR as an extension of public relations rather than the starting point for long-term value communication. This is precisely an area where the association needs to continuously work.

Kevin Yu, Chief Advisor of TIRI, notes from a macro perspective that Taiwan should not merely imitate international best practices but should establish two-way learning and cooperation mechanisms, allowing the system to evolve continuously.

As the integrator of the association’s operations, Judy Hsu, Secretary-General of TIRI, describes her role as a “translator,” converting the languages of different industries and professions into a public policy language that the association can communicate externally. She points out that when the board members begin discussing the “next generation,” the association is no longer just an organization but a professional ecosystem capable of continuous self-renewal.

Chairman Jonny Zong-Lin Guo concludes by stating that the essence of IR is not “making information look better,” but embedding trust into the system and placing value into the long-term narrative. If Taiwanese companies continue to treat IR as an extension of PR, they risk remaining in short-term reaction mode; true competitiveness lies in enabling the board, management team, and capital market to discuss risks, strategy, governance, and sustainability using the same logic, allowing the market to see not just financial figures but verifiable governance quality and long-term resilience:

“Looking towards 2026, what TIRI needs to do is not issue another advocacy statement, but to actually create the ‘common language’. Advancing systems and methodologies, deepening education and talent supply, and incorporating the ‘next generation’ into training and succession mechanisms. This ensures the profession can be passed on, the system can iterate, and the association can continue to self-renew, driving companies towards the global stage.”

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The post From Disclosure to Decision-Making: How Investor Relations is Rewriting the Language of the Boardroom first appeared on The Icons.

As a crucial hub in the global supply chain, Taiwan possesses solid technological foundations and industrial strength, yet has long faced the structural dilemma of “insufficient visibility.” Many companies have strength and sincerity but lack sufficient voice and narrative dominance in the currents of international capital markets. Precisely because of this, how to make Taiwanese companies heard by the world has become a critical issue in contemporary capital governance.

In an exclusive interview with the UK-based global leadership impact media《The Icons》,  Jonny Zong-Lin Guo, Chairman of the Taiwan Investor Relations Institute (TIRI), stated, “IR is not just about information disclosure; it’s a bridge for the market to understand your true value.” He believes that as the pace of the investment market accelerates, only by establishing a rhythm of transparency and trust can corporate value transcend volatility and be remembered long-term. For Guo, the ultimate goal of IR is to make integrity and professionalism the common language for Taiwan to go global:

“The essence of IR is to let the market see the reality, not just the appearance of being seen. When companies understand how to be understood, trust naturally becomes their strongest capital.”

From Expertise to Institution: Making Trust a Form of Governance

Jonny Zong-Lin Guo’s understanding of investor relations stems from years of practical experience in the capital markets. Having long interacted with institutional investors, regulators, and analysts, he has witnessed how information asymmetry can lead to good companies being undervalued and how communication gaps can cause trust to erode. “That’s when I understood that IR cannot be treated as marketing; it is a governance profession,” he recalls his early realizations. “The US National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) has existed for half a century, but Taiwan still lacked its own institutions and community.”

In 2018, he decided to take action, gathering dozens of spokespersons and CFOs to co-found the Taiwan Investor Relations Institute. It was a journey starting from scratch, without corporate backing or existing resources, only a group of people who believed that professionalism could change the market. “Many seniors told me that the hardest part of establishing an association isn’t starting, but surviving,” Guo admits the early days were tough, but he always held firm to one belief: value must be institutionalized for professionalism to be respected:

“Expertise must be verifiable to be trusted. When business leaders can instantly recognize the value of professionalism, the cost of market communication decreases, and the speed of trust increases accordingly.”

Guo views the establishment of TIRI as a long-term market-building effort. The association’s role is not just about networking, but about integrating scattered experiences into followable standards. He believes IR should become a shared governance language between companies and investors. “We hope to transform experience into methods, turn methods into standards, and allow professionalism to take root within the industry.”

Over the years, Guo has evolved from a financial staff member to a practitioner driving institutional development. This role change has also shown him the weight of another kind of responsibility. Promoting TIRI is, for him, a long-term commitment to enable Taiwanese companies to be understood, trusted, and seen in the global market.

Jonny Zong-Lin Guo: As Market Cap Grows, Connections Must Keep Pace

Last autumn, the global investment community’s attention unexpectedly focused on Taiwan, with multiple reports indicating that the total market capitalization of the Taiwan stock market had surpassed that of Germany, ranking eighth globally. For most, this was a milestone worth celebrating; for Jonny Zong-Lin Guo, it felt more like a silent test.

“Market cap moving forward is a fact, but international connections remain relatively thin, that is also a fact,” Guo stated. He noted that growth also means increased responsibility, because when the world starts paying attention to you, the standards by which you are measured become stricter.

Guo recalled his trip to Europe in September 2025, visiting exchanges and IR associations in several countries, from Frankfurt to Bulgaria and then Istanbul. It was more than just a visit; it was a profound observation. “The world knows Taiwan is strong in the supply chain, but they find it difficult to name specific companies. It’s not that the companies aren’t good enough; it’s that we haven’t actively told the world why they are good.”

In his view, information asymmetry is the biggest market fault line. If companies focus solely on operations and neglect communication, they will ultimately be categorized merely as “silent forces” in the international market.

“Among Taiwan’s over 1,900 listed and OTC companies, silence equals invisibility.” For Guo, investor relations is not just about information disclosure, but a demonstration of responsibility. “The core of IR is to make trustworthy companies understood.” He believes that international capital values efficiency, and the market always rewards companies willing to clearly articulate their story and consistently build trust.

Guo is convinced that only when companies learn to replace silence with dialogue and speculation with trust on the international stage can Taiwan’s 8th place market cap truly translate into deeper influence.

What the Market Rewards is Verifiable Honesty

In Jonny Zong-Lin Guo’s view, the value of investor relations ultimately gets quantified in the market. It’s not just an act of communication, but a practice of governance. He often uses these two distinct examples to illustrate what he means by “professionalism speaks.”

The first is the joint material information conference held by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd and TECO, represented by Hon Hai spokesperson Wu Chun-Yi and TECO spokesperson Chien Shih-Hsiung. The conference announced a strategic alliance through a share swap to jointly deploy global Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centers. At that press conference, standing at the front were not the chairmen, but the spokespersons and investor relations heads of both parties. There were no slogans, only professional explanations and precise information. “I knew clearly that when professionalism is placed at the forefront, market trust follows on its own.” That brief public explanation became a turning point for Taiwan’s capital market. Subsequently, the stock prices of both companies rose simultaneously, with market capitalization reflecting the market’s reward for transparent communication. “When investors trust your information, they respond with real money.” This is the conclusion he has drawn from repeated observation.

The second example serves as a somber warning. It concerns a company with a long history of poor governance ratings and insufficient information disclosure, where warning signs were already present in public data. Guo points out that if a company chooses to ignore these signs, it’s effectively leaving risk to chance. The eventual outcome wasn’t just financial loss, but a chain reaction of collapsing trust. “IR is not a fire extinguisher; it’s a transparent mechanism that allows risks to be seen.” He emphasizes that a truly mature market isn’t one without risks, but one where risks can be identified early.

Guo has always believed that governance and communication are two sides of the same coin. Governance must be supported by institutions, but trust is accumulated through communication. “The market will ultimately price professionalism, but the prerequisite is that professionalism must be understood.” For companies, short-term exposure never equals trust. Only disciplined communication and long-term integrity can leave a true credit record in the market. “Investors aren’t afraid of risk; they’re afraid you’re not clear.” This simple statement is perhaps his most profound annotation on the logic of market trust.

From Concept to Structure: Making Expertise Verifiable

Jonny Zong-Lin Guo often says that the raison d’être of an association is to institutionalize ideals and make expertise verifiable. TIRI’s development has followed this logic, establishing three pillars: Certification, Connection, and Tools. These three are not just the association’s operational structure, but also the crucial foundation for the maturation of Taiwan’s capital market.

The first pillar is the TIRIC (Taiwan Investor Relations Institute Certificate) professional certification. This system moves investor relations from experience-based tradition to a knowledge system, from individual practice to verifiable expertise. “TIRIC isn’t just another piece of paper; it allows companies to instantly identify professionalism.” Guo points out that in the past, many business leaders lacked a clear understanding of the role and capability boundaries of IR. The certification system enables talent and companies to align, establishing a more stable professional standard:

“When companies know who to look for and why, the efficiency of market dialogue improves, and professionalism gets noticed.”

The second pillar is “Connection.” TIRI is dedicated to establishing a tripartite communication network among companies, investors, and the media. One of Guo’s most frequently quoted sayings is: “The market will not actively understand silence; only professionalism that is seen can be trusted.” This phrase has become the core belief driving the association’s cross-industry collaboration efforts. Beyond hosting forums and training, TIRI places great importance on establishing long-term interactive mechanisms, allowing companies and the market to form a virtuous cycle of understanding and trust:

“Often, it’s not that companies are performing poorly, but that no one knows how good they are. The purpose of connection is to ensure that true value is communicated correctly.”

The third pillar is “Tools.” The association has introduced ESG evidence chains, communication platforms, and AI analysis systems, pushing IR from traditional manual operations towards data-driven decision-making. “AI is not a threat, but a magnifying glass that helps us quickly identify what the market truly cares about.” Guo states that in an era of information overload, relying solely on human reaction is insufficient to keep pace with the market. Through the integration of data and systems, professionalism can maintain both efficiency and depth. “Expertise needs to be seen, methods need to be replicable, and tools need to be utilized effectively.”

For Guo, these three pillars represent long-term market construction. Certification defines professionalism, connection enables understanding of relationships, and tools extend trust. When ideals form an orderly system, IR becomes an engine driving the steady growth of the entire capital market.

True Internationalization is the Ability to Exchange Value

In the seven years since its founding, TIRI has established direct contacts with investor relations associations in over a dozen countries, from the US, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan, gradually building a professional network spanning Europe and Asia. It was a long and challenging road. “Initially, when we called foreign associations, they thought we were scammers. But now we can engage in dialogue as equals, introducing each other and validating each other.” This transformation, from being an “observed party” in the early days to a “cooperative partner” now, symbolizes Taiwan’s gradual establishment of a trustworthy professional position in the international capital market.

Guo consistently emphasizes that the focus of internationalization is not on overseas visits, but on the ability to generate value exchange and mutual growth. “Going out is just the first step; bringing things back is more important.” TIRI deconstructs best practices from various countries into concrete modules, then integrates and adapts them according to the characteristics of the Taiwan market.

“‘Taiwan can help’ – this phrase represents our willingness to share what we have learned and achieved with the world and move forward together.” Guo adds that this mindset allows Taiwan to no longer be just an observer or learner, but a cooperative partner capable of actively exporting materials, processes, and tools. When a market has the capacity to contribute, its voice naturally becomes an invitation rather than something to strive for.

Guo believes that IR internationalization is not just about professional connections, but also about extending trust. When Taiwan’s systems are referenced by other countries, and when Taiwan’s cases are included in international teaching materials, it demonstrates not just the association’s achievements, but the brand value of a market. “When one market can help another market become better, trust naturally gravitates towards it.” This phrase is the core belief driving his promotion of the association’s globalization.

Guo hopes that in the future, more companies will proactively participate in international dialogue, so the world remembers not only Taiwan’s industrial strength but also the professional spirit of this market. For him, IR internationalization is a long-term trust-building project, making “Taiwan” a trustworthy market language, not just a geographical term.

AI and ESG: Co-defining the Next Market Logic

Jonny Zong-Lin Guo pinpoints the next critical juncture as 2026, when the Corporate Governance Evaluation is officially upgraded to an ESG Rating. This change represents not just an adjustment in scoring criteria, but a renewal of the entire market mindset. At that point, dialogue between companies and investors will focus more on tangible environmental and social outcomes, allowing value to be concretely verified. “Previously, we only talked about Governance; next, we must clearly articulate the E (Environment) and S (Social).”

In his view, this is a process of teaching the market to “speak honestly” again. If companies cannot provide auditable ESG evidence, they are effectively closing the door on themselves, losing the qualification to engage in dialogue with international capital:

“ESG is not about image; it’s a condition for survival. When information cannot be verified, trust cannot be generated.”

Guo is also paying close attention to AI’s profound impact on IR. He believes AI’s value lies in making decisions more forward-looking and communication more precise. “AI enables faster information processing and more immediate responses, but human judgment remains the core of direction.” For him, technology and professionalism complement each other. Tools can amplify results, but direction still depends on expertise and integrity. Whether a company can maintain its initiative in the future depends on its ability to integrate technology with strategy and transparency.

Speaking about the future, he offers three practical starting points for companies. First, bilingualize all key communication materials so global investors can understand them immediately. Second, reassess the investor base, clearly distinguishing between long-term and short-term capital attributes to allow focused communication segmentation. Third, establish an ESG evidence chain, ensuring every effort is backed by traceable data:

“When IR becomes part of corporate governance, information transparency is no longer a pressure, but a capability.”

Guo points out that a company’s value never resides solely in its financial reports, but in the depth the market is willing to understand. When transparency and trust form a positive cycle, valuation naturally follows. For him, 2026 is not just a year of institutional upgrades, but the starting point of a new order. “What truly moves Taiwan forward are those willing to be understood and willing to be verified.” This has been his most sincere expectation for the market over the years:

“True trust is always built on honest demonstration. When companies dare to face the market, understanding and trust will follow.”

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The company Kate Huang founded, Young Power Art, received the inaugural “Cross-Domain Co-prosperity Award.” This award is part of the first “ESG for Culture Impact Award” established in 2025 by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA). This award recognizes the innovativeness, impact, and sustainability of collaborative models between for-profit enterprises and cultural content producers, with cultural content, social impact, and commercial value at its core.

The award focuses on actions or works that leverage a company’s core business in collaboration with cultural content producers to jointly create ESG impact. The goal is to build an ecosystem where cultural influence drives corporate value, creating unique business models and economic benefits for enterprises. The “ESG for Culture Impact Award” emphasizes collaborative projects across the three dimensions of cultural content, social influence, and commercial value, with comprehensive evaluation determining the top three awardees.

In a list where most winners were large corporations, Young Power Art, a personal enterprise rooted in the art and culture scene, stood out like a dark horse. Standing under the shining spotlight at the awards ceremony, besides being gratified that her long-term efforts had finally been seen, Kate Huang felt the social responsibility she had always carried on her shoulders become even weightier.

Her life experiences have prepared her for this mission of healing through art. On this long journey, she has consistently adhered to her original intention. In an interview with《The Icons》international celebrity magazine, Kate Huang stated, “I want to use art to help people who, like me, have experienced the pains of life and illness. I also hope to enable the public to pay proper attention to this social phenomenon, and smoothly achieve the goal of establishing an Art Medical Foundation in the future.”

This is not a contest about scale, but a question of “whether art can enter the core of public narrative.” In the very first evaluation, Kate Huang and the company she founded, Young Power Art, succeeded. Kate Huang successfully brought art and culture into the core of public discourse, relying on years of diligent effort step by step.

Beyond the surprise of winning, Kate Huang does not view this recognition as a coincidence. During the selection process, she submitted various documentary materials, including media exposure and records of company activities and exhibitions, repeatedly explaining whether Young Power Art’s concept of “cross-domain” was merely conceptual collage or already enacted. Ultimately, she chose to lay all her actions bare: the practical collaboration with physicians, the on-site educational promotion, media coverage records, and connections with a wide range of creators, exhibitions, and public discussions.

Kate Huang also specifically emphasized, “To be understood, you naturally need to put in more effort to prove that you are not just stopping at words.” This is a sense of rhythm cultivated from a long-term position on the margins. She is not impatient for recognition but patiently accumulates traces that can be identified. She understands clearly that for art to enter the institutional purview, it must first learn how to be seen and read.

Kate Huang, Founder of Young Power Art, views this affirmation as an entry ticket. She believes cross-domain collaboration is not just a slogan but a very long road to travel. On this road, there is not only herself, who has recovered, but also many friends who need her and the foundation’s help. From cultural content and educational promotion to psychiatric advocacy and the public voicing of individuals in recovery, Huang’s “sustainability” is not just about environmental protection; it’s about how people can be understood, supported, and enlightened.

Crossing Boundaries: Not Just a Form of Collaboration, but an Inner Path

For Kate Huang, “cross-domain” has never been a strategy, but a worldview. “When most companies discuss the cultural aspect, they emotionally tell their stories. But my original intention has always been centered on rationality and sensibility, and the more I do, the more I find my own direction.”

Art and science, rationality and sensibility – in her understanding, there is no conflict. It was in dialogue with psychiatrist Dr. Su-Ting Hsu that she found herself again. Therefore, she is even more convinced that for individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, medicine and art are inseparable. Through art, one perceives their body, gradually aligning physical actions with the thoughts in the mind and heart. This journey of aligning body and mind is itself a successful cross-domain attempt. She successfully walked back to her inner path, deep into her long-neglected soul, through medicine and art.

Kate Huang also hopes to promote this method to other patients and the public. Rationality and sensibility are indispensable; they possess essential commonalities fundamentally. They simply handle the same issue in different ways: how people understand themselves and establish relationships with the world. “I have always felt that rationality and sensibility are not opposites. They are actually on the same line.”

It is precisely this unique way of thinking that naturally guided her towards the collaboration between medicine and art. When creation enters the context of psychiatry, patient experience, and social advocacy, art is no longer just a form of expression, but becomes a usable language – one used to understand, connect with, and loosen existing labels.

TAICCA is also aware of her long-term collaboration with Dr. Hsu. For Huang, that is not just publicity, but concrete proof. Cross-domain collaboration is no longer merely a formal alliance, but a question of whether both parties can mutually fulfill each other on this psychosomatic journey, finding a harmonious and self-consistent inner state.

Starting with Children: Returning Creativity to Life

During the interview, Huang mentioned the reality in Taiwan: the government currently does not recognize art therapy, particularly painting therapy, as an official form of treatment. However, because sound therapy used in the field of music can yield measurable data, trust from the government and the public in sound therapy is currently higher.

Acknowledging the difficulties in promoting art therapy in Taiwan, she stated, “Regarding the painting aspect of art therapy, because it cannot be easily quantified, many people might think it is ineffective. Due to this, the government does not recognize that participating in art therapy, having children or patients paint, can produce therapeutic effects. That is a real pity. I believe that through our continuous efforts in this area, we can help the public, government departments, and entrepreneurs recognize the healing power of painting.”

In the context of artistic “sustainability,” Kate Huang has chosen a relatively slow mode of practice. Allowing art to unfold slowly, not pursuing rapid completion. She is not eager to name outcomes, nor does she chase immediately visible results. For her, true sustainability does not lie in how many projects are completed, but in whether things will continue to happen.

“If you only do something once, it will disappear quickly. What truly matters is whether it will continue to leave an impact.” This is also the core question Young Power Art returns to repeatedly in curation, education, and public collaboration: Can art be preserved over time, rather than consumed? And art education promotion is the quietest, yet most resolute, line in her practice.

In the teaching setting, she deliberately avoids replicative techniques, instead guiding children to think, ideate, and organize their own experiences. Here, art is not a final product, but a process that allows for trial and error and exploration. Huang emphasizes, “I do not want children to just copy the teacher. Because when they grow up, no one can paint their life for them.”

Her educational philosophy aims to give children a portable gift, promoting their self-identity through diverse methods, and fostering various concepts of equality in art classes—especially gender equality and gender diversity—encouraging them to explore and understand the essence of people and things, rather than being confined to superficial social labels.

Huang advocates using one’s own creative work as a starting point to further elaborate and extend related elements, spreading them outwards layer by layer like ripples, eventually forming a large circle encompassing many cross-disciplinary collaborative resources. This is how the sustainable narrative of art occurs.

Inner Strength Enhanced by Art Healing

“I think what a cultural entrepreneur needs most is an open mind, because if you do not have an open heart, you cannot embrace all kinds of infinite possibilities.” Besides foreseeing future global trends, Huang talks about: “Human potential is limitless. Cross-field, cross-culture, cross-domain – all kinds of possibilities exist. Art is not just art anymore, culture is not just culture. In the future, it may become even more diverse, embracing even greater inclusivity. We just need to accept that all sorts of seemingly impossible things can happen.”

In her inner world, societal frameworks and disciplinary boundaries have lost their necessity. Embracing the unknown and change in life is the only answer.

Kate Huang further believes that the life experience of creating healing paintings is, in itself, a test of inner vitality. The intricate and painstaking process of painting, along with the path to recovery, which others might find hard to believe, she successfully accomplished. For her, this is a powerful inner self-healing process, a strength and courage needed by society.

Especially for individuals in recovery, being able to finally take such artistic action, no longer confining themselves at home, overcoming internal obstacles, and going out together with other patients, even to institutions like the Legislative Yuan, to tell their stories, “lets people with more political influence understand that we can truly recover.”

Kate Huang feels this is a crucial self-awareness, encouraging patients to bravely step out of their homes. It not only accelerates recovery but also, through the understanding and communication of influential individuals, helps establish correct perceptions in the public eye, reducing societal stigma and negative criticism.

“When you yourself embody this issue, others will follow your lead and also be willing to collaborate across fields.” As someone who has been through it, Kate Huang leads by example, encouraging other patients, and through courageous voicing, channels vital healing resources into this community.

When Art Encounters Institutions, the Real Difficulties Begin

The real challenge often appears when art attempts to enter the institutional framework. Simultaneously an instructor and a person in recovery, Kate Huang stands at the intersection of government, medicine, and culture, witnessing how trust is built and how easily it can be withdrawn. “The hardest part is actually making the system believe you are not just an idealist, but that you can truly deliver.”

She talks about the still-fragmented communities of people in recovery, and society’s simplified imagination of mental disorders. What she does is not limited to creation; it involves repeated attempts to build stages, allowing overlooked lives to be seen and heard publicly. She earnestly hopes to use her personal experience as someone in recovery, combined with her artistic background, to transform artworks into channels for outward social communication.

In Kate Huang’s artistic language, “healing” is not about escaping reality, but a gentle yet clear-eyed gaze, an unrestricted open mind. “I hope my works do not weigh people down, but act like a lamp, glowing quietly.” She is not in a rush to define ESG or SDG, but allows viewers, through their observation, to feel for themselves the questions about dignity, connection, and understanding. Here, art does not provide answers, but leaves space.

She views this award as an entry ticket, not a destination. Kate Huang believes: “Resources are just the first step. What is most important is what you do after obtaining resources to change the world.” Looking back on her own path as someone in recovery, Huang deeply understands how difficult every step taken is for this community. She hopes even more to use her own resources and the realization of her ideals to help these people.

Therefore, in the future, she deeply hopes to establish a medical arts foundation, allowing the dialogue between art and medicine to continue. Besides voicing concerns for those in recovery, she also hopes to integrate medicine and art, using the opportunity from receiving the Cross-Domain Co-prosperity Award to consolidate resources in regenerative medicine, benefiting more people:

“I hope to help the public understand that mental illness does not solely rely on medication for recovery. Brain nerves can be continuously developed through training. Combining art and medicine in neural therapy can also achieve excellent results.”

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On 8 December 2025, the CAMentrepreneurs Asia – Taiwan Q4 Forum, hosted by CAMentrepreneurs, the University of Cambridge’s global alumni entrepreneurs community, took place on the 57th floor of Taipei 101. The forum was co-hosted by The Icons (APAC Office) and The Executive Centre (TEC), Taipei 101, and co-organised with the support of the Cambridge Society of Taiwan, the Oxford Society of Taiwan, the Taiwan Investor Relations Institute (TIRI) and the British Chamber of Commerce in Taipei.

With the theme “From Governance to Trust Capital”, the forum brought together practitioners and thought leaders spanning business ethics, investor relations, and leadership reputation management—to examine the deeper link between governance, trust, and sustainable corporate value from multiple perspectives.

The forum was moderated by Professor Ali Ying-Che Hsieh , President of the Cambridge Society of Taiwan and Professor at the Institute of Technology Management, National Tsing Hua University. In his opening remarks, he noted that the challenge facing businesses today is no longer simply whether compliance frameworks are in place, but whether the outside world remains willing to believe in them—even when systems exist.

“If governance remains confined to internal procedures, it cannot answer market scepticism. Trust only accumulates when governance becomes behaviour that can be seen, understood, and repeatedly verified. That is when trust becomes the true source of long-term value.”

As a co-host, Vildon Foo, General Manager of The Executive Centre, Taipei, emphasised that real leadership must be accountable—towards the environment, society, and the wider communities in which businesses operate—and that this belief is embedded in TEC’s everyday choices:

“From partnering with ESG-aligned buildings such as Taipei 101, to adopting sustainable materials and energy-efficient solutions, and forming partnerships with organisations that share our values—such as The Icons, a media platform with global perspective—today’s focus on ESG leadership carries a clear message. ESG is not merely a framework or a box-ticking exercise; it is a way of thinking, and a set of choices we make every day through leadership and decision-making.”

Yang Pai-Chuan, Chief Ethics Officer at Sinyi: How Business Ethics Builds the Foundations of Trust

As Chief Ethics Officer within the Sinyi Group, Yang Pai-Chuan guided the discussion towards a less visible—but often most decisive—layer of governance: how intangible forces shape organisational behaviour over time. He observed that what truly drives decisions and actions in a company is not always what is written in policies, but what people instinctively do when rules are unclear.

In his view, executive authority manages the visible world—strategy, resource allocation, and performance outcomes—while ethical governance focuses on the internal judgement systems that cannot be easily quantified, yet operate continuously. These invisible forces determine how people navigate ambiguity, how trade-offs are made in grey areas, and whether an organisation can hold the line on trust under pressure.

“Most companies do not lose trust because of one dramatic mistake, but through gradual drift in everyday operations. Each time standards are lowered for short-term gains, or communication is sacrificed for efficiency, choices may appear reasonable in isolation. Over time, they erode the organisation’s core value base. When this drift goes unnoticed, even the most robust systems struggle to prevent trust from leaking away.”

Yang stressed that business ethics is not a restrictive framework designed to limit action. Instead, it is a thinking system that helps organisations remain consistent in complex reality. The aim is not perfection, but clarity: enabling people to recognise which behaviours damage relationships and which choices build trust. When such judgement becomes practised repeatedly and internalised as culture, trust no longer needs to be loudly promoted—it settles, naturally, into the organisation as its deepest and most difficult-to-replicate form of intangible capital.

Jonny Zong-Lin Guo, Chair of TIRI: How Investors Decide Whether a Company Merits Long-Term Trust

Speaking from the frontline of capital markets, Jonny Zong-Lin Guo , Chair of the Taiwan Investor Relations Institute (TIRI), reminded the audience that investors do not assess companies in isolation. They face an abundance of choices competing for trust simultaneously. In an environment of extreme information density, the market does not have the capacity to fully digest every company’s internal narrative. As a result, organisations must proactively establish a language of trust that can be interpreted quickly.

Guo noted that investor relations has never been about persuasion. It is about reducing uncertainty. Investors are not only asking whether a company is performing well today, but how it will respond when conditions shift, pressure rises, and difficult decisions must be made. The question is whether the company’s behavioural patterns are predictable—and whether its decision logic and values remain consistent.

“Governance assessments, ESG metrics, transparent disclosure, and timely communication form a language the market can read. They enable investors to identify, amid complexity, which companies demonstrate stable decision-making logic and a consistent value orientation. When a company shows continuity over time across these dimensions, trust accumulates—not as a short-term emotional reaction, but as a durable asset.”

He added that mature governance is not about pursuing zero risk, but about ensuring risk is visible, understood, and managed. When a company is willing to acknowledge uncertainty and explain the reasoning behind its decisions and guiding principles, the market often finds it easier—not harder—to build trust. Ultimately, that trust shows up in valuation, liquidity, and how far capital is willing to travel with the enterprise.

Harry Hsu, CEO of The Icons: In the AI Era, the Market Ultimately Assesses the Leader Behind the System

Harry Hsu, CEO of The Icons, brought the conversation to a contemporary reality that modern organisations cannot avoid: as governance frameworks and information become more transparent, the market often ends up assessing not the system itself, but the leader behind it.

He argued that in the AI era—where information is generated and amplified at speed—public understanding forms faster than ever, and trust judgements become more concentrated. Whether leaders are willing to take responsibility openly, articulate values clearly, and maintain consistency in critical moments can have a direct and disproportionate impact on corporate reputation.

“Leadership reputation is not a cosmetic add-on outside governance. It is governance leverage—amplified. When internal values and external narrative connect coherently through the leader, trust can be built far more quickly. But when leaders choose to remain hidden or ambiguous, even strong systems cannot fully compensate for market anxiety.”

Hsu added that when leaders consistently demonstrate stable judgement and decision logic over time, their reputation can accumulate into a form of trust capital that is transferable and scalable. This trust capital affects not only investors and markets, but also employees, partners and the wider stakeholder ecosystem—becoming a critical intangible resource during transformation, fundraising, and cross-border expansion.

“This is where The Icons has focused for the long term. We are not here to ‘manufacture image’ for leaders or companies. We help translate values and judgement that already exist internally—but are not yet visible to the world—into public narratives the market can understand, trust, and remember. In the AI era, the advantage is not in speaking faster. It is in being understood correctly. When understanding is established, trust follows—and becomes the most resilient form of long-term capital.”

About CAMentrepreneurs: A Cambridge-Rooted, Globally-Oriented Network of Thought and Leadership

CAMentrepreneurs, supported by the University of Cambridge and founded by prominent alumni entrepreneur Richard Lucas, is a global alumni community active across Europe, Asia and North America. Centred around Cambridge and Oxford alumni in each city, it connects founders and business leaders from technology, finance, manufacturing, sustainability, media, and innovation. Through public forums, closed-door exchanges, international collaborations and cross-city linkages, CAMentrepreneurs has developed into a network rooted in Cambridge values and driven by global perspective.

Richard Lucas has noted that, unlike communities built primarily on resource exchange or short-term deal-making, CAMentrepreneurs places emphasis on how ideas shape action, and how organisations build governance structures worthy of trust as they grow. Through cross-industry and cross-cultural dialogue, it aims to deepen exchange among leaders—so that innovation becomes not only a race of speed and scale, but also a discipline of values, choices, and long-term impact.

“For us, CAMentrepreneurs has never been solely about business or achievement. It is about how people, in a fast-changing world, still choose honesty, responsibility, and mutual trust. We are building a space where leaders from different cultures and generations can speak openly and learn from each other. Here, people do not need to prove how successful they are first. They are willing to ask what kind of value they want to leave behind in the world.”

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For decades, national governments and large-scale infrastructure have been the main protagonists of the global energy system. Yet as extreme heat, cold snaps, torrential rain, and hurricanes occur with record frequency, the structural weaknesses of traditional centralized grids are increasingly exposed. Energy ministries around the world are now grappling with the same fundamental question: should energy security shift from centralized to distributed? Should households become more autonomous, resilient, and participatory nodes within the energy network? This is not merely a technological question, but a profound structural transformation in global governance. Within this context, EcoFlow’s showcase of portable and home-storage solutions, especially the comprehensive smart home energy solution, stood out at COP30 as one of the most practical and forward-looking responses.

As Dr Bruce Wang Lei, Founder and CEO of EcoFlow, explained in an interview with The Icons, standing on the United Nations stage filled him with both pride and humility. “This is not merely about EcoFlow’s growth,” he reflected, “but about witnessing clean, intelligent energy become a shared global agenda. It reaffirms my belief that the truest form of innovation lies in turning technology into products that serve both humanity and the planet’s sustainable future. Humanity is in the midst of a great paradigm shift towards new energy; technological innovation and climate action must advance together. Our goal is to help every household experience this revolution and truly feel how the new energy paradigm can elevate their everyday lives, which lies at the heart of smart home energy. This sense of responsibility only deepens my resolve to continue empowering households around the world to embrace meaningful energy transformation.”

From the Laboratories: The Birth of a World-Class Energy Methodology

While many describe EcoFlow through the lens of a start-up or unicorn firm, few recognize the company’s original starting point — bringing clean energy to the world.

EcoFlow’s Founder, Dr. Wang Lei began as academic research to improve energy efficiency, now has evolved into a mission to help tens of millions of households around the world achieve energy independence.

Energy, as Wang often reflects, has become the foundation of civilization not because it is advanced, but because it is universal, stable, and equitable in its use. Guided by his belief that “any good technology can — and should — serve everyone,” Wang stepped beyond the walls of the engineer’s world to pursue innovation that transforms real lives.

Through the Difficulties: The Trials, Conviction, and Evolution of an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship is indeed a long and painful test of conviction. What kept me going was my unwavering belief that clean energy could change lives,” said Dr Bruce Wang. He recalled that what sustained EcoFlow through its darkest days was not the imagined combination of capital, subsidies, or luck, but rather the faith of the company’s first few thousand seed users across the world. They were few in number — far from enough to sustain the business — yet they were willing to pay for the value EcoFlow created and believe in a vision that had not yet taken shape.

“These thousands of users, who both need and readily embrace energy independence, have nurtured us,” Dr Wang reflected. “Their trust gave us tremendous courage. For a stable and reliable energy supply is the bedrock of human civilization’s continuity — a value beyond comparison. This conviction has been the central pillar that sustained me through my darkest hours.”

As challenges mounted, Wang began shaping a highly adaptive, self-evolving model of leadership — moving from personally solving problems, to empowering his team to solve them, and ultimately to building systems that would allow the organization to sustain itself. He often remarks, “We don’t pursue perfection; we pursue evolution.” That principle became deeply embedded in EcoFlow’s DNA, keeping the company moving forward amid the fierce competition of the clean energy sector.

The Soul of Technology: From the Fast-Charging Revolution to the Leap into Smart Home Energy

In the early days of the consumer energy industry, few realised that charging speed would become the defining variable capable of reshaping the entire landscape. Yet in 2019, EcoFlow’s launch of the DELTA series changed that perception entirely — cutting charging times from over ten hours to just 1.6. It was not simply a matter of being faster; it was a structural breakthrough that expanded what the industry considered possible. Behind this achievement lay three years of research, countless iterations of materials, design optimisation, and extreme stress testing.

Many regarded it as a feat of engineering, but to Dr Bruce Wang, it was something more — a proof of spirit. “If we haven’t failed enough, it means we haven’t truly innovated,” he often says. This philosophy of relentless experimentation became the cornerstone of EcoFlow’s identity.

After the fast-charging revolution, EcoFlow has not paused at the height of its success as the No. 1 in portable power stations. Instead, the company began charting a broader blueprint — one for a smart home energy ecosystem that integrates generation, storage, distribution, and intelligent consumption. Since launching whole-home smart energy solutions in Europe in 2023 and expanding into North America and Australia this year, EcoFlow has rapidly risen to the forefront of the home energy market globally.

With a deeper understanding of shifting user needs, EcoFlow realized that true empowerment must go beyond portability. It requires a seamlessly integrated smart energy solution designed around the home — one that delivers stable, efficient, and intuitive energy independence for everyday living.

That same philosophy was at the heart of COP30’s agenda: the democratisation of clean energy, turning sustainability from privilege into daily reality. As a line from The Lion King reminds us, “Everything the light touches is our kingdom.”

The Virtual Power Plant: A Real Path to the People’s Grid

EcoFlow’s concept of ‘Power a New World’ has garnered significant attention. As more families adopt solar panels, energy storage, battery management, and smart control technologies, the world is accelerating towards a decentralised and efficient energy era. This transition not only reduces household costs and carbon emissions but also strengthens nations’ progress towards their net-zero ambitions. The foundation and a feasible answer of all this is a stable, intelligently operated home energy system — one that ensures distributed energy is reliable, controllable, and capable of being aggregated.

At COP30, EcoFlow emphasised that “the energy independence of every household will ultimately converge into a nation’s energy resilience.” Within the global framework of energy governance, the Virtual Power Plant (VPP) has become one of the most compelling ideas of the past decade — and EcoFlow has brought this concept back to its most meaningful level: the home. When tens of thousands of intelligent household energy systems are connected, they form a dynamic and resilient network where every family is both a consumer and a contributor of power. For EcoFlow, this represents the natural extension of its mission: to turn individual energy independence into collective energy resilience.

For Dr Wang, the virtual power plant is not merely a technological or commercial innovation but a profound expression of energy’s public value. “Any good technology should be owned by every ordinary person,” he believes — a principle that runs through every layer of EcoFlow’s product design, technological strategy and system architecture. From electricity to the steam engine to the internet, every major technological transformation in human history has evolved from exclusivity to universality. The virtual power plant stands at that same inflection point — the moment when clean energy becomes a shared right, rather than a privilege.

Building a Reliable, Accessible and Affordable Smart Home Energy Ecosystem

EcoFlow’s sensitivity to energy challenges stems from its deep insight into the realities faced by households worldwide. They clearly recognize the vulnerabilities of traditional centralized grids—especially during extreme weather events and peak demand periods—and see how smart home energy systems can empower households to become active participants in energy management.

Through smart appliance connectivity, storage optimization, and renewable energy integration, EcoFlow is dedicated to building a user-friendly, plug-and-play smart home energy ecosystem that enables everyday families to manage their energy with ease, without requiring any technical expertise—ultimately allowing them to become true producers and dispatchers of energy.

This is far more than a collection of hardware. It is the integration of solar power, storage batteries, inverters, and home appliances into a sensing, analytical, and optimizable whole—powered by intelligent algorithms and a robust energy management platform. The system can automatically choose the optimal energy distribution strategy based on weather conditions, electricity prices, and household usage patterns, improving both energy efficiency and economic performance.

Humanitarian Technology: When the Warmth of Energy Illuminates the World’s Darkness

For Dr Bruce Wang, technology is not meant for display — it is meant to bear responsibility. He often emphasises that “energy innovation must serve humanity itself.” From powerless villages in Indonesia to emergency relief zones after earthquakes in Japan, and from hurricanes to wildfires in the United States, EcoFlow’s systems have repeatedly provided the most stable power source in disaster-stricken regions. In moments when public grids collapse, communication networks fail, and hospital equipment stops running, household-level energy storage becomes the most reliable form of life support. In these situations, a smart energy system does more than providing electricity. It intelligently prioritizes key devices like medical equipment, communication tools, and refrigerators to ensure they receive power for as long as possible, even with limited storage.

One of the most memorable moments for Dr Wang took place earlier this year in Houston, where a hurricane had devastated the local grid, leaving more than 800,000 residents without electricity for over a week. When the EcoFlow team arrived, they witnessed an unforgettable sight: an entire neighbourhood swallowed by darkness — except for one home, glowing with a soft, warm light. The person told the team, “The whole community is dark, but thanks to EcoFlow, my home is the only light in the night.”

That image, Dr Wang recalls, became a defining reminder that energy is not only power — it is dignity, safety, and hope. These moments have since shaped EcoFlow’s ongoing commitment to systematic innovation. Energy is a real, human need — one bound to the safety of families and the stability of daily life. The meaning of technology, he believes, is born precisely from these moments of truth, when innovation becomes warmth that lights up the darkness of the world.

The Next Decade: From COP30 to COP31 — A Global Vision for the World

During COP30, EcoFlow presented a proposal of global significance for the governance of future energy systems — households will become the driving force of the next energy revolution. The coming five years will witness the rapid proliferation of intelligent, interconnected home energy systems. EcoFlow’s vision is to enable every household to become a highly efficient energy hub, capable of generating, storing, and managing energy independently. Yet, as Dr Wang emphasised, “household energy independence is only the first step.”

Looking ahead to COP31, Dr Wang envisions a future where more households are linked into resilient shared networks — a true energy ecosystem in which communities can support one another during power outages, natural disasters, or periods of high demand. This marks not just a technological evolution, but a societal transition — from individual self-sufficiency to collective resilience and abundance.

In his closing words during the interview with The Icons, Dr Wang stated powerfully, “The future of energy does not lie in exhibition halls or at negotiation tables, but in millions of ordinary homes.” The sentence encapsulates both a belief and a direction — and it defines EcoFlow’s global mission for the decade ahead: to make sustainable, intelligent energy a shared reality for every household across the planet.

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The discussions centred on critical themes including advanced materials, low-carbon technologies, energy infrastructure and next-generation semiconductor manufacturing. Leading research institutions and industry figures from across Europe and Asia gathered to exchange insight and explore new models of cooperation.

During the forum, Dr. Jiunn-Yih Chyan, Chief Operating Officer of DEUVtek, was invited to deliver a keynote address. He shared perspectives on the silicon carbide materials revolution, sustainable manufacturing and the future trajectory of advanced packaging technologies. His insights drew significant interest from European research bodies and global industry stakeholders.

As the forum’s media strategy partner, the London editorial team of the British publication The Icons conducted an in-depth interview with Dr. Chyan at the Entopia Building, capturing his views on the global semiconductor ecosystem, sustainable production models and the innovation pathways shaping the industry’s future.

The Turning Point in Materials Technology: From Industry Pain Points to Innovation Momentum

When discussing the founding vision of DEUVtek, Dr. Chyan did not shy away from the realities of the industry. Instead, he addressed the core issues with a distinctly strategic perspective. He noted that the rapid expansion of AI, electric vehicles, 5G and low-Earth-orbit satellites has pushed global expectations for semiconductor materials and energy efficiency into a new era.

Traditional silicon is no longer sufficient for the demands of emerging technologies. While silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) offer significant performance advantages as next-generation compound semiconductors, their extreme hardness, corrosion resistance and processing challenges have created structural bottlenecks for the industry—particularly in achieving mass production and reliable yield rates.

In the interview, Dr. Chyan outlined this technological inflection point with clarity: “Breakthroughs in materials do not automatically translate into value. If manufacturing processes cannot keep pace, material revolutions will never truly enter the industry.” His analysis reflects a growing consensus across the semiconductor sector: the next decade of competition will hinge not only on material innovation but also on whether manufacturing processes can accommodate new materials and build a stable supply chain.

“DEUVtek was established on the basis of these industry realities,” he emphasised. “What I want to highlight is that companies must begin with the structural pain points of the value chain and grasp the challenges shared across global markets. Only then can they define their position in the next wave of technological evolution.”

DeepThinning: A Technical Breakthrough Reshaping Silicon Carbide Manufacturing

When discussing DEUVtek’s core DeepThinning technology, Dr. Chyan spoke with the precision of a scientist, outlining both its technical significance and its broader industrial implications. He explained that while silicon carbide offers unparalleled advantages in energy conversion efficiency, voltage resistance and thermal conductivity, its extreme hardness and corrosion resistance have made traditional machining methods—such as mechanical grinding and gas etching—reach their limits in efficiency, yield and consumable costs.

DeepThinning replaces these consumable-intensive processes with an innovative optical-laser mechanism that enables entirely non-contact manufacturing. This dramatically reduces wafer breakage and significantly increases processing speed. “When a process no longer relies on mechanical force, the issues of material stress and wafer breakage can be solved at their root,” Dr. Chyan noted. “This is not just an improvement in efficiency; it is a fundamental redefinition of the logic behind silicon carbide processing.”

In measurable results, DeepThinning has reduced breakage rates from the industry norm of around 3 percent to below 0.1 percent, enabling stable mass production of ultra-thin wafers below 50 micrometres. With consumables essentially eliminated, overall manufacturing costs fall by roughly 20 percent. The process also removes diamond grinding wheels, oil-water cleaning and consumable waste streams—major sources of carbon emissions—ushering silicon carbide production into a genuinely sustainable model.

According to Dr. Chyan, the technology has attracted significant attention from research groups at Cambridge precisely because it delivers three forms of high-level global impact: a restructured cost model, enhanced industrial scalability and a practical pathway for embedding sustainability into next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.

The Taiwanese Model of Sustainable Manufacturing: Systemic Resilience Built Within Constraints

When speaking about sustainable manufacturing, Dr. Chyan analysed Taiwan’s position through a broad structural lens. He pointed out that Taiwan is not only a global centre for advanced semiconductor manufacturing, but also one of the first regions to confront the constraints of limited water, electricity and land resources, alongside intensifying international pressure on carbon emissions. The fact that Taiwan continues to maintain the world’s highest yield rates and the most complete supply chain under these conditions reflects what he describes as a form of “systemic resilience”: the ability to keep innovating despite multiple constraints.

During the interview, he emphasised: “Taiwan’s strategic importance does not rest solely on technological leadership, but on its ability to practise sustainable manufacturing under resource pressure.” This form of sustainability is not an optional add-on, but an embedded element of Taiwan’s entire production logic.

Dr. Chyan explained that DeepThinning fits squarely within this context. By reducing carbon emissions, eliminating consumables and improving production stability, the technology becomes a key component of Taiwan’s strategy for a sustainable global supply chain. It enables silicon carbide manufacturing to achieve both environmental benefit and industrial competitiveness—an advantage that will shape Taiwan’s role in the next generation of semiconductor development.

International Expansion: Europe as the First Proving Ground for Technology and Policy

When asked why Europe was chosen as the starting point for DEUVtek’s international expansion, Dr. Chyan offered a clear, strategy-driven explanation. Europe, he noted, is simultaneously the global architect of sustainability regulations, a major centre for compound-semiconductor research and the region with the most ambitious energy-transition policies. Just as crucial is the continent’s shift toward a “local for local” production model in response to geopolitical tensions and a fragmented supply chain. Under this model, companies that can demonstrate sustainable processes, high reliability and the ability to build localised operations gain trust and market access far more rapidly.

He also highlighted the pivotal role of the National Institutes of Applied Research (NIAR): “NIAR provides the practical mechanisms that connect Taiwan directly with Europe’s research institutions, policy networks and technological ecosystem.”

Through instrument-sharing frameworks, cross-disciplinary projects, international research agreements and overseas research hubs such as the ACDRC (Advanced Chip Design Research Center, established by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Czech Republic), Taiwanese companies can integrate swiftly into Europe’s technology system and validate their innovations under some of the world’s strictest standards.

According to Dr. Chyan, this approach is not only about expanding markets; it is, more fundamentally, about gaining “access to the arena of international technology governance.”

Becoming a Driving Force in the Global Reconfiguration of the Semiconductor Supply Chain, Not Just an Equipment Provider

Looking ahead, Dr. Chyan observed that the global semiconductor industry is shifting from a “process-scaling race” to a “system-performance race”. Heterogeneous integration, 2.5D and 3D packaging and the rise of chiplet architectures will define the next phase of industry development, and Taiwan sits firmly at the centre of this transition. With its dense technical capability and fully developed ecosystem in advanced packaging, Taiwan is uniquely positioned to shape the global chiplet landscape.

Against this backdrop, DEUVtek’s role is becoming increasingly distinct: to serve as a pivotal equipment provider in advanced packaging and new-material manufacturing, while using its R&D base in Taiwan to establish trusted technological footholds across Europe and the United States.

“Our aim is not to chase scale, but to become the most reliable technological partner amid the uncertainties of the global supply chain,” Dr. Chyan emphasised. “This strategic model will enable DEUVtek to act as a system-level force in the reconfiguration of the global semiconductor supply chain, rather than merely a supplier of individual equipment.”

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The post Dr. Jiunn-Yih Chyan, COO of DEUVtek: Building a Global Framework for Sustainable Semiconductors and Defining the Future Through a Packaging Revolution first appeared on The Icons.