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Ken Kao is the founder and chairman/CEO of the D-Link Group, the world's largest supplier of consumer network connectivity products. Since establishing the Company in 1986, Mr. Kao has transformed it from a few million-dollar business entity to a US$1 billion global supplier of network equipment today, with products ranging from Ethernet Switching equipment to Internet broadband and SOHO/SMB connectivity products. Born in 1950 in Taiwan, Mr. Kao received his academic training, and earned a Bachelor's of Science degree in Electro-physical Engineering in 1972 from the National Chiao-Tung University in Hsinchu. The school is known as the "MIT" of Taiwan, home to many of the Island's most prestigious top tech leaders. With a handful of engineers, Mr. Kao set up D-Link in 1986, Taiwan's first networking venture to develop, manufacture and market networking gears. Being the first few to enter what was still then called the PC networking market at its earliest stage, he was able to lead the Company on a high growth path to become the largest networking equipment vendor in the Asia Pacific region. In 1991, Mr. Kao received the "ROC Model Entrepreneur of the Year" Award. In 1994, he was honored with the "Premier Award of Contemporary Business Leaders in Taiwan", while D-Link became Taiwan's and Asia's first publicly listed networking company the same year. Under Mr. Kao's leadership, D-Link has earned numerous international recognitions. It was profiled in Forbes' 300 Companies in November 1998, ranked among the world's Top Ten Most Productive Networking Companies by Network World Magazine in April 1999, and chosen to be one of the Annual Top 100 Information Tech Companies by Business Week Magazine in June 2002. Mr. Kao spends most of his pastime reading and playing golf and basketball, his two favorite sports. He regularly sponsors annual Golf Events for business people and Basketball Competitions for the youth and university students in Taiwan. Mr. Kao has also initiated annual Charity Events since 1994, with ten different non-governmental social organizations in Taiwan receiving millions of dollar donations from D-Link each year. According to The Synergy Research Group report on February 14, 2005, D-Link shipped more than 37 million networking units worldwide in FY 2004, nearly twice as many as its nearest competitor. | 