Taipei, TAIWAN – 11 February 2020 - Appier , a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, announces today the appointment of Dr. Lee Feng Chien to its board of directors. Dr. Chien is a veteran of the technology industry and world-renowned for his expertise in AI; data search and processing; and natural language processing (NLP). He was most recently at the helm of Google Taiwan, where he supervised growth and operations as Managing Director for 14 years. Dr. Chien has been lauded for his contributions as a mentor to many Taiwanese start-ups and entrepreneurship programs in Taiwan. His business acumen, thorough thinking, and precise judgment have helped many growing companies succeed.
Dr. Chien joins Appier’s board as an independent member following his recent retirement from Google. In this role, he will be a critical contributor to business discussions and decisions, applying both his knowledge of AI and his experience in leading a high-performing technology business. “Dr. Chien is a proven and distinguished technology expert, and we are happy to welcome him as our independent board member and to leverage his significant industry know-how in driving Appier’s continued success and long-term growth,” said Chih-Han Yu, CEO and co-founder of Appier. “Dr. Chien brings a wealth of invaluable technology and international business expertise; the board and I look forward to his insightful advice as we grow Appier into a global operation while remaining innovative and customer-centric.”
In addition to his time at Google, Dr. Chien brings experience from the Academia Sinica Institute of Information Science, where he was a researcher and director. He concurrently served as a contract professor at National Taiwan University (NTU) and consulted for Microsoft Asia's research institute. Dr. Chien has published more than 100 papers in data search and processing and is a founder of the Asia Information Search Conference. Chien earned his Ph.D. in computer engineering from NTU in 1991. “I’ve followed Appier’s growth since its early days and have been impressed by its success and the resilience and vision of the founding team .
I look forward to having a deeper engagement with the business,” said Dr. Chien. “Taiwan has a great opportunity in AI development, thanks to its legacy in hardware manufacturing and the increasing strength of the software industry. Appier, as a leader in AI solutions, will be part of transforming Taiwan into a human capital-oriented business landscape. I look forward to supporting Appier in developing an even more robust and diverse talent base to further drive its ambitions in product innovation and continuing to learn from Chih-Han and his team.”
The addition of Dr. Chien to Appier’s board follows the company’s recent milestone of US$80 million in Series D funding. With its additional resources and new talent, Appier is continuing to grow in terms of headcount, geographical expansion and enhanced product lines, all contributing to Appier’s goal of making artificial intelligence easy and accessible for everyone.
Appier helps businesses solve their most challenging problems with artificial intelligence. It is a partner to some of the world’s leading brands, providing a suite of enterprise-grade products to support data-driven decisions and accelerate business growth. Established in 2012 by a passionate team of computer scientists and engineers, Appier now has more than 400 people across 14 offices and is recognized as a Top 50 AI company by Fortune Magazine. Appier has raised US$162 million in funding from investors including Sequoia, Softbank, and Line.