John Tu
John Tu | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 12, 1941 |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Technical University of Darmstadt |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Co-founder of Kingston Technology |
| Children | 2 |
John Tu (Chinese: 杜紀川; pinyin: Dù Jìchuān; Wade–Giles: Tu Chi-ch'uan; born August 12, 1941) is a Taiwanese-American billionaire businessman and philanthropist.[1] He is the co-founder of Kingston Technology.[2]
Early life
John Tu was born in Chongqing, China in 1941. He was the son of an official in China's Nationalist government. He moved to Shanghai with his parents in 1945, before going to Taiwan two years later as the Chinese Civil War neared the coast.[3][2][4]
Tu moved in 1960 to West Germany to study electrical engineering, and was educated at a language school in Munich. In Germany at that time, a two-year apprenticeship was required for everyone, so he worked at a shipbuilding factory. After working there for two years, he studied electrical engineering at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt in Germany and graduated in 1970. He then went to work for Motorola in Wiesbaden, Germany. In 1971 he moved to California.[3][2]
Career
In 1982, he co-founded Camintonn with David Sun.[3] In 1986, they sold it for $6 million. They then lost most their money in the 1987 stock market crash and founded Kingston Technology later that same year.[3] In 1996, they sold 80 percent of the company to Softbank for $1.5 billion, before buying it back in 1999 for $450 million.[3][5]
Philanthropy
In 2021 Tu made a donation to the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation that enabled the Pulitzer Prize-winning Storm Lake (Iowa) Times to buy its local competition and a weekly in an adjoining county.[6] He has supported Erin Gruwell's Freedom Writers and the Freedom Writers Foundation.[7] In 2011, he donated $1.2 million to give every first year medical student at UC Irvine an iPad.[8][3][9]
Personal life
He is married with two children.[3]
References
- ^ "The My Hero Project - John Tu".
- ^ a b c Rosie Murray-West (19 July 2003). "Business profile: Yin and yang of memory". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Forbes profile: John Tu". Forbes. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
- ^ "Kingston Technology and the power of memory". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-07-27.
- ^ "The Billionaires Who Make Money Every Time You Buy a Phone". 6 May 2016.
- ^ "Des Moines Register". The Des Moines Register.
- ^ "Kingston Co-Founder Tu Freedom Writers' Benefactor". Archived from the original on 2008-11-01.
- ^ "John and Mary Tu Foundation: Los Angeles Grants". 23 August 2022.
- ^ "John Tu". 5 November 2021.