Min H. Kao is the co-founder of Garmin

Garmin

Garmin Ltd. , incorporated in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, is the parent company of a group of companies founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao , that develops consumer, aviation, and marine technologies for the Global Positioning System...

 Corporation with Gary Burrell

Gary Burrell

Gary Burrell is an American businessman, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Garmin, makers of popular Global Positioning System devices.-Biography:...

. As of January 2010, his personal wealth was estimated at $1.6 billion.

Biography

He was born in 1949 in a small town in Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 called Jhushan

Jhushan, Nantou

Zhushan Township is an urban township in the southwest part of Nantou County, Taiwan, and off the south shore of Zhuoshui River . Pop. about 50,000-Stays:*Sun Link Sea Forest Recreational Area*Xiaping Natural Education Park...

  in Nantou

Nantou County

Nantou County is the second largest county of Taiwan. It is also the only landlocked county in Taiwan. Its name derives from the Hoanya Taiwanese aboriginal word Ramtau. Nantou County is officially administered as a county of Taiwan....

.

Before founding Garmin, Min Kao served as a systems analyst at Teledyne Systems. Min Kao graduated from National Taiwan University

National Taiwan University

National Taiwan University is a national co-educational university located in Taipei, Republic of China . In Taiwan, it is colloquially known as "Táidà" . Its main campus is set upon 1,086,167 square meters in Taipei's Da'an District. In addition, the university has 6 other campuses in Taiwan,...

 with a BS degree then joined the University of Tennessee

University of Tennessee

The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...

, where he earned his M.S.

Master of Science

A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...

 and Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 degrees in electrical engineering

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

 and was involved in research for NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 and the U.S. Army.

The Min Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building

May 14, 2007, groundbreaking ceremonies were conducted for the new Min Kao Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Building on the University of Tennessee's engineering campus.

UT alumnus Kao committed in June 2005 to a transformational gift of $17.5 million to the College of Engineering. This was the largest private donation in UT history to that date. A total of $12.5 million from the donation is designated for the construction of the new facility.