Wu-Fu Chen is a renowned serial entrepreneur and top ranked venture capital investor. He is a founding Partner of Genesis Campus, Acorn Campus (Cupertino, CA and Shanghai, China) and Dragon Investment Co. and IdSoft Capital (Taipei, Taiwan). Wu-Fu Chen has also founded more than a dozen high-tech companies that range from optical switching to high-end ATM chip technology. He is perhaps best known as co-founder and VP of Engineering of Cascade Communications, where he steered Cascade through its IPO, being instrumental in the company’s achieving a $10 billion market cap. Wu-Fu Chen also co-founded and acted as chairman and CEO of Arris Networks (acquired by Cascade), Ardent (acquired by Cisco) and Shasta (acquired by Nortel). He was also previously Vice President of Technologies at Cisco Systems.
The industry has recognized Wu-Fu Chen’s operational and entrepreneurial excellence with numerous awards; he has been described as a “Legend in Silicon Valley” and was recognized by Red Herring magazine as one of the “Top Ten Entrepreneurs of 2000.” Forbes Magazine consistently ranks him as one of the Top 100 Venture Investors in the U.S. He has been featured on the front page of the “Wall Street Journal,” where he was referred to as the “Germinator” for his start-up activities and “Light Reading” Magazine once called Wu-Fu Chen the “most influential person” in optical networking. He is also the recipient of the Life Time achievement award by Optix, and the Distinguished Alumni Award by the University of Florida,
Wu-Fu Chen has a proven track record in identifying key niches, commercializing new technologies, attracting experienced management teams, securing key customers, accessing financing, and executing successful exits. He has early access to a proprietary deal flow based on his long-standing and established industry relationships and reputation. Wu-Fu Chen is actively involved in the development of portfolio companies and plays an important role in attracting deals as well as top talent to Genesis Campus and its portfolio companies.
Wu-Fu Chen is a commanding speaker and university guest lecturer who has delivered keynote speeches to industry associations, conferences and universities worldwide. He is also frequently interviewed by leading publications and media on entrepreneurship and emerging telecom technologies.
Wu-Fu Chen is also a Partner of the Taipei based Dragon Investment Fund, which he co-founded with Mr. Stan Shih, Chairman and founder of the Acer Group. Dragon Investment aims to become the leading technologies transfer facilitator, business accelerator and funding source in Taiwan by leveraging its world-class expertise in management, market vision, and technologies.
Wu-Fu Chen is a member of the Board of Directors in over a dozen companies and public and private institutions. Wu-Fu Chen received an MSEE from the University of Florida in 1976 and a BSEE from National Taiwan University in 1972. From 1976 to 1977 he was in the doctoral program in computer science at UC Berkeley.
