John Chen was appointed to serve as a Special Advisor in 2012. Prior to joining Silver Lake Mr. Chen served as the Chairman and CEO of Sybase Inc., beginning in 1998. Under Mr. Chen’s leadership, Sybase was transformed from a mature technology company into a high-growth innovator that was acquired by SAP AG in 2010. Prior to Sybase, Mr. Chen held a series of executive positions at Siemens AG, Pyramid Technology Corp., and Burroughs Corp. He started his career as a design engineer with Unisys Corp.
Mr. Chen serves on the board of directors for the Walt Disney Company and Wells Fargo & Co. He has also served on the board of the CIT Group Inc. and as a member of the New York Stock Exchange’s listing advisory committee as well as the boards of several high-tech startups, including Beyond.com, Niku Corporation, Wafer Technology, and Turbolinux US.
Mr. Chen is actively involved in international relations. He has testified before Congress on U.S.-China trade relations. In 2005, President George W. Bush appointed him to serve on the President’s Export Council. In 2006, he was appointed as a Co-Chair of the Secure Borders and Open Doors Advisory Committee. Additionally, Mr. Chen chaired the U.S.-China Policy Advisory Roundtable for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Forbes magazine recognized Mr. Chen one of the Top 25 Notable Chinese-Americans in Business. In recognition of his leadership in building U.S.-Asia relations, Mr. Chen has received awards from the US-Asia Institute, the U.S.-China Policy Foundation, and the California-Asia Business Council. For his corporate board work, he has been honored by the U.S.-Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation.
Mr. Chen is active in the not-for-profit community. He is a trustee of Caltech, a board member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, a trustee of the Brookings Institution, a national trustee of The First Tee, a governor of the San Francisco Symphony, and a longtime member of the Committee of 100 who served as its Chairman from 2009 to 2011.
Mr. Chen graduated from Brown University magna cum laude with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and was later awarded the Brown Engineering Alumni Medal. He also holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Mr. Chen holds an honorary professorship from Shanghai University and honorary doctorates from San Jose State University, City University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
