Min-Liang Tan

Min-Liang Tan or Tan Min Liang (born 5 November 1977)[lower-alpha 1] is a Singaporean businessman, internet entrepreneur and former lawyer. He is the co-founder, chairman, chief executive officer (CEO) and creative director of the gaming hardware company Razer Inc., as well as being the chairman and CEO of THX. He oversees the design and development of all Razer products.[1] Tan was a lawyer before he co-founded Razer with Robert Krakoff.[2]

In this false name, the surname is Tan (陈).
Min-Liang Tan
陈民亮
Tan at 2019 RISE conference
Born (1977-11-05) 5 November 1977
Singapore
Alma materNational University of Singapore (LLB, LLM)
OccupationBusinessman
Years active1997–present
Known forCo-founding Razer Inc.
TitleCEO of Razer Inc.
CEO of THX
Signature

Apart from Razer, Tan is a founding member of the Open Source Virtual Reality platform, which aims to create a common standard for VR program design. The next frontier for Razer has been said to lie in the realm of virtual reality, and Tan hopes to create an entire virtual reality industry, citing that the prospects are “phenomenal” in entertainment, health care and military applications.[3] Tan is also a board member of the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).[4]

Tan debuted in 2016 on the Forbes Singapore Rich List with a net worth of US$600 million[5] and became the youngest self-made Singaporean billionaire at the age of 40 with a net worth of US$1.6 billion when Razer went public in 2017.[6]

Early life and education

Tan was born on 5 November 1977 in Singapore to Tan Kim Lee, a real estate consultant, and Low Ken Yin, a homemaker, Tan is the youngest of four children in his family.[7]

As a Singaporean, he is bilingual, being fluent in both English and Mandarin Chinese. Two of Tan's siblings eventually became doctors, one of whom is the renowned clinician-scientist Tan Min Han (who is also the founder, CEO and medical director of Singaporean genomic medicine company Lucence Diagnostics).[8]

Tan attended Raffles Institution and Hwa Chong Junior College prior to attending university and graduated from the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law (NUS Law).[9][10] Tan graduated with a Master of Laws,[11] and was ranked top 20 in his post-graduate law class when he graduated in 2002.[12]

Career

Prior to founding Razer, Tan was an advocate and solicitor for the Supreme Court of Singapore.[13]

In 1999, Tan and Robert Krakoff (who was GM of kärna LLC) first met and worked together to design the world's first gaming mouse — the "Razer Boomslang".[14][15]

In 2005, Tan and Krakoff founded Razer.[15] Subsequently, Tan acquired the rights to the brand and officially incorporated Razer Inc, subsequently taking on the role of CEO and Creative Director of Razer.

On March 31, 2015, Tan was appointed as a board member of Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).[4]

On November 13, 2017, Razer had their IPO and Tan became the youngest self-made Singaporean billionaire at the age of 40.[16] With Tan as CEO, the company developed gaming mobile phones but failed to develop its business-to-consumer Razer Pay e-wallet app after not getting the respective license it Singapore in 2020[17]

Fan base and reputation

Tan has a cult-like following worldwide and his fans have created fansites of him as well as even tattooed Tan's name on themselves.[18] One of his fans has gone as far as tattooing Tan's face on himself.[19]

In December 2019, Kotaku published an exposé, based on the statements of 14 former Razer employees, containing wide allegations that under Tan's leadership Razer celebrates a culture of fear, and that Tan himself berates, threatens and shames his staff.[20]

Awards

Tan was included in the "Top 10 Most Influential Leaders in Tech" in 2015 by Juniper Research.[21] Tan was named one of "The 25 Most Creative People in Tech" by Business Insider.[22] He has been ranked one of the top 40 most powerful people in gaming by Kotaku in their "The Kotaku Power 40" list.[23] Tan was ranked No. 1 of the 30 top Southeast Asia tech founders by TechinAsia.[24] Tan was named the Asian of the Year in 2016 by Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times.[25]

He has won awards from his alma mater, NUS, such as the Outstanding NUS Innovator Award in 2011[26] and Outstanding Young Alumni in 2015.[27]

Philanthropy

In March 2012, Tan contributed US$10,000 to the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter project where he admitted it was to atone for infringing the copyright of Wasteland when he was a child. Brian Fargo replies that Tan has more than made up for his downloading of the game.[28][29]

In November 2014, Tan donated US$10,000 and did the Ice Bucket Challenge in an effort to raise funds for ALS.[30]

In February 2015, Tan donated £10,000 to fight Motor Neuron Disease. The donation was done via Twitch live stream subscription to ProSyndicate.[31]

Media appearances

Tan was a backer of Wasteland 2[32] and Torment: Tides of Numenera[33] on Kickstarter which resulted in him being added to both games as a non-player character. He also appears in Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues.[34]

Tan has also had cameos in movies like Dead Rising: Watchtower where he acted as a zombie.[35]

Notes
  1. simplified Chinese: 陈民亮; traditional Chinese: 陳民亮; pinyin: Chén Mínliàng

References
  1. Gamesbeat 2009 Speakers Archived 2010-02-18 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Razer CEO Tan Min Liang: "We are our biggest challenge". e27. October 11, 2012. Archived from the original on August 27, 2015.
  3. "Tan Min-Liang: Gaming Guru". The Peak Magazine Singapore. Aug 3, 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-08-27.
  4. "SIM Provost, Razer CEO join Intellectual Property Office of Singapore Board". Channel NewsAsia. Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  5. "Razer Sharp: Tech Tycoon Min-Liang Tan Debuts on Singapore Rich List". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
  6. "Fortune of Razer Founder Min-Liang Tan Soars to $1.6B After IPO". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
  7. Tan, Sumiko (July 30, 2017). "Lunch With Sumiko: Razer founder Tan Min-Liang's 'insane drive to be the best'". The Straits Times. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved September 13, 2020.
  8. "Tan Min-han". emedevents.com. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  9. "The fourth issue of ONE - The Raffles Institution Alumni Magazine". Raffles Inc. November 3, 2011. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
  10. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-04-20. Retrieved 2015-06-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. "MIn-Liang Tan". Forbes. Archived from the original on 22 March 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  12. "Notices". www.lawgazette.com.sg. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-12-07.
  13. "5 Questions With Razer CEO". CNBC. NBC Universal. 23 February 2011. Archived from the original on 14 June 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  14. "The Swordmaster". Prestige Singapore. December 4, 2012. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
  15. "About Razer". Razer. Archived from the original on 2015-07-25.
  16. "Fortune of Razer Founder Min-Liang Tan Soars To $1.6B After IPO". Fortune. Nov 14, 2017. Archived from the original on November 16, 2017. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
  17. Tan, Jessica. "Founder Of Gaming Devices Firm Razer Gets A Boost After Taking Company Private". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-06-06.
  18. kishorekis45 Tweet on Twitter
  19. "Steve Jobs and Elon Musk share something in common with this Singapore tech CEO | South China Morning Post". 8 December 2017. Archived from the original on 2017-12-10. Retrieved 2017-12-17.
  20. "Razer CEO Berated And Threatened His Staff, Former Employees Say". Kotaku. December 5, 2019. Archived from the original on October 18, 2020. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  21. "Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, Heads Top Tech Leader Rankings 2015". Archived from the original on 2015-05-27. Retrieved 2015-05-26.
  22. "25 Most Creative People in Tech". The Business Insider. March 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-05-04.
  23. "These Are The 40 Most Powerful People In Video Games". Kotaku. March 8, 2012. Archived from the original on May 16, 2013.
  24. "Southeast Asia's top 30 tech founders". TechInAsia. October 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-10-13.
  25. "Straits Times Asians of the Year". Straits Times. December 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-12-16.
  26. "NUS Enterprise - Awards". enterprise.nus.edu.sg. Archived from the original on 2014-10-09. Retrieved 2015-12-07.
  27. "NUS honours 19 alumni for outstanding contributions to alma mater and society". news.nus.edu.sg. Archived from the original on 2015-11-27. Retrieved 2015-12-07.
  28. "Repentent(sic) pirate drops $10,000 in Wasteland 2 fund". vg247. March 14, 2012. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013.
  29. "$10,000 Worth of Wasteland 2 is Brought to You by Razer". Kotaku. March 14, 2012. Archived from the original on March 15, 2012.
  30. "Archived copy". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2015-06-23. Retrieved 2015-06-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  31. Tom Syndicate Tweet on Twitter
  32. Antista, Chris (14 March 2012). "Razer CEO ponies up $10K to fund Wasteland 2". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 5 September 2018. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  33. Rigney, Ryan. "BIG-MONEY DONORS HELP TORMENT GAME BREAK KICKSTARTER'S FASTEST-TO-$1M RECORD". Wired. Archived from the original on 7 April 2018. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  34. Jennings, Scott. "Tower of the Shuttered eye". Shroud of the Avatar Forum. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  35. "Min-Liang Tan". Facebook. Archived from the original on 2018-07-03.
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