Career
John S. Chen began his career 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.
Chen next joined Siemens Nixdorf as a vice president in 1995. He was promoted to president and chief executive officer of Siemens Nixdorf's Open Enterprise Computing Division in 1996.
In 1997 Chen became president, chief operating officer and a director of Sybase. He was named chairman, CEO and president of Sybase in November 1998.
Chen developed and led Sybase’s re-invention strategy to evolve what had become a mature slower growth technology company into a $1B+ high-growth innovator. First, Mr. Chen returned Sybase to profitability and improved its balance sheet. He then defined and implemented Sybase’s “Unwired Enterprise” strategy to reposition the company, leveraging its database knowledge to create new offerings that addressed the emerging markets for analytics and mobility.
Under Chen’s leadership, Sybase achieved strong financial performance and shareholder returns, including 55 consecutive quarters of profitability, $2.8 billion of cash generated, and a 28 percent compound annual growth rate of its market capitalization from a low of $362 million to $5.8 billion in 2010, when it was acquired by SAP AG.
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