John S. Chen

John S. Chen (July 1, 1955- ) is chairman, chief executive officer and president of Sybase, Inc. A recognized expert on global business and international trade, he is also a director of Wells Fargo & Company.

A native of Hong Kong, he was graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon School in Northfield, Massachusetts. He was graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1978 with a BS degree in electrical engineering. In 1979 he received his MS degree in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

With Unisys he was vice president and general manager of, in turn, the Convergent RISC Platform Division and the Convergent UNIX Systems Group. In 1991 he joined Pyramid Technology Corporation as executive vice president. Chen was elected president, chief operating officer and a director of Pyramid in 1993, serving until 1995.

Chen next joined Siemens Nixdorf as a vice president in 1995. He was promoted to president and chief executive officer of Siemens Nixdorf's Open Enterprise Computing Division in 1996.

In 1997 Chen became president, chief operating officer and a director of Sybase, Inc., the largest independent software vendor specializing in enterprise database, information management and mobility technology. He was named chairman, CEO and president of Sybase in November 1998.

He was among the first American business executives to favor permanent normalization of trade relations with China. President George W. Bush named Chen a member of the President's Export Council in December 2005. He has received an honorary professorship from Shanghai University, an honorary doctor of science degree from the City University of Hong Kong, and an honorary doctor of business administration degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Chen was elected a director of the Walt Disney Company in 2004 and of Wells Fargo & Company in 2006. He is also a director of the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Committee of 100, a trustee of the San Francisco Symphony, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

In the realm of politics, he has been a member of Bush-Cheney '04 and John McCain 2008.