Early Life

Wang was born and raised 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...

, moved to Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, US at the age of 13 and then to California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 at the age of 14. He attended the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 and graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1986.

Vizio

In 2000, Wang survived the crash of Singapore Airlines Flight 006

Singapore Airlines Flight 006

Singapore Airlines Flight 006 was a scheduled passenger flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Los Angeles International Airport via Chiang Kai-shek Airport in Taiwan...

, suffering only carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide , also called carbonous oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly lighter than air. It is highly toxic to humans and animals in higher quantities, although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities, and is thought to have some normal...

poisoning. He thought first of his family and second that all his headaches were suddenly gone. He still was stuck with all these bad businesses, but he had a better attitude. After the plane crash, it took a year or two to shut down all his businesses and then he got into the flat screen business.

In 2001, Gateway asked Wang to help put together a TV plan. Ted Waitt [Gateway’s then chairman] had been one of Wang’s customers at MAG, his former company and had become a mentor to Wang. Wang’s team helped Gateway put together its 42-inch plasma TV system, priced at $2999. Comparable systems at the time sold for upwards of $6000. Not long after that, Wang decided to get into the TV business for himself.

He started "V Inc." in 2002 with Laynie Newsome, Ken Lowe and $600,000. His idea was to combine low prices with high quality and exceptional customer support, and to make this approach profitable through extremely lean operations. He had originally wanted to name it W Inc. after being impressed with the Hotel W during a stay there, but settled for V when he learned that W had already been copyrighted. Later when V Inc. was found to be hard to pronounce, he renamed the company VIZIO Inc. – the name used for their plasma TV. The company is now one of the largest sellers of LCD HDTVs in North America with $2.5 billion in revenue in 2009 and a three-year growth rate of 295.12%.

Other Affiliations

• Board of Director at Segerstrom Center (2011)
• Board of Counselors USC Viterbi School of Engineering (since 2009)

Awards

• April 26, 2010: OC 50 in Technology in the Orange County Business Journal
• 2010: Innovative Leadership Award NAAAP in Orange County
• 2010: Forbes 25 most notable Chinese Americans
• 2008: Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist
• 2008: Technology Fast 500 by Deloitte
• 2007: OC Metro Hot 25