Report on York Liao's seminar at UCSD

SS Lau

`Long time no talk. In this message, I am summarizing the talk given by York  Liao at UCSD for your reference. As you may remember I sent his seminar announcement to all lighters a few weeks ago. Walter Mok ( D18, Mok,Yiu-Wah,Walter) and a few of York's 1963 Pui- Ching classmates came to listen to him. York's company, a flat panel display manufacturer headquartered in HK, has 2500 workers located in HK, China, Malaysia,  Europe and north America.

He started his talk by telling the students, faculty at UCSD that when he was doing his Ph.D. Research on liquid crystal, he did not think it was ever going to be useful. Some time after graduation, he was in Switzerland and saw a liquid crystal watch . He bought it for his father. It costed about one month of salary and it broke down in less than two years. For the  first time he witnessed the usefulness of LC in display. Since coming back to HK Chinese U 1974, he started research in LC with a few graduate students. The rest is, of course, just history.

He emphasized the success of Varitronix is due to three factors: (1) timing ( tin see)--- LC was poised to become functional in the mid 70s. (2) location ( day lee)---HK and the Pearl River triangle have almost inexhaustible amount of labor force and (3) harmony ( yen woo)---the founding fathers of the company were all good friends and colleagues; one of the " magnificent 7 or 8" founders was his graduate student. They all get along well and work towards similar goals. All three factors are crucial in the success story of Varitronix.

I think there is a lesson to be learned here in his story. Those of us engaged in business may know what it is. I just thought his talk was well prepared with nice AMLCD slides , contained a good stroy with teaching value and delivered in fluent English.

Enclosed please find his seminar outline, bio and a photo taken at the UCSD faculty club. The photo can be viewed using JPEG or photoshop. The person on the far left is Walter Mok, next to Walter is Ken Leung ( class of 1963), then comes SSLau and York Liao to the far right. I will also ask Tony kwok to upload this message and the photo in case some of us cannot open the graphic file. Hope you enjoy the summary, the photo and kindly consider actively participation in Lighter communications

         3:30 - 4:30 p.m. , EBU1 - Room 4307

"THE VARITRONIX STORY: FROM BLACKBOARD  TO DISPLAY BOARD"
Dr. York Liao
Managing Director
Varitronix International Limited

The synopsis: How a bunch of academics ventured into the "real" world  of electronics industry. What were the factors that made them successful  and why weren't there more of them). What has been the changes over   the years: in technology, in the market, and in Hong Kong's business   environment. Are there any lessons?

SHORT BIO: Born in China and raised in Hong Kong,  Dr. Liao went to the U.S. in the early sixties after finishing his high  school  in Hong Kong. He obtained his B.Sc. from California Institute of Technology  in Physics in 1967 and continued his graduate studies in Applied Physics at Harvard University, and was awarded a M.A. degree in 1968 and Ph.D. in 1973. After working for the United Nations for one year, Dr. Liao returned to Hong Kong in 1974 and started his teaching career at the Chinese   University where he lectured in the Electronics Department for ten years.

In 1978, he and a number of his colleagues, student and staff founded  Varitronix Ltd., one of the very first few LCD manufacturers in the world  and the first such indigenous venture. In 1984, Dr. Liao left the University   and devoted his full time to the company as its Executive Director.Varitronix   became a listed company in 1991 and is now ranked in the top 100 public companies in Hong Kong. It was selected to be one of the constituent stock  of the Hang Seng MidCap 50 Index in 1995. Varitronix now operates out of  Hong Kong, China and Malaysia with four factories and a work force over two thousand. It has sales offices in U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Singapore and distribution networks in over 30 countries.  In 1998, Dr. Liao was elected to the Board of Trustees of the California nstitute of Technology.