John S. Chen

John S. Chen (Chinese: 程守宗; pinyin: Chéng Shǒuzōng; Jyutping: cing⁴ sau² zung¹; born July 1, 1955) is a Hong Kong-born British–American businessman and chief executive officer of BlackBerry Ltd. Previously, he served as the chief executive officer and president of Sybase, an independent software vendor specializing in data management, analytics, and mobility technology. He is currently a director of Wells Fargo & Company and Walt Disney Company.

Education

A native of Hong Kong, Chen studied at La Salle College in Hong Kong until Form 5 before he went to the United States and graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon School, an elite prep school in Northfield, Massachusetts. He then went on to graduate magna cum laude from Brown University in 1978 with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering. In 1979, he received his MS degree in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Career

Chen began his career in 1979 as a design engineer with Unisys, where he eventually served as vice president and general manager of, in turn, the Convergent RISC Platform Division and the Convergent UNIX Systems Group. In 1991 he joined Pyramid Technology Corporation as executive vice president. Chen was elected president, chief operating officer and a director of Pyramid in 1993, serving until 1995.