The CEO of Chinese social network TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, questioned Thursday by elected members of the United States Congress accusing the popular application of undermining national security, is a former banker who has known a rapid rise in the technology sector.
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His hearing by a powerful parliamentary committee, while the application belonging to the Chinese group ByteDance risks total banning in the United States, is a first for the 40-year-old businessman, with a discreet personality.
Here are 17 things to know to get to know TikTok’s mysterious boss better:
- He was born in Singapore;
- He attended the prestigious Hwa Chong School;
- Like most Singaporean men, Mr. Chew did his military service as a youth, with such success that he was commissioned;
- He studied economics at University College London;
- He is fluent in Mandarin and English;
- He was a banker for Goldman Sachs;
- He completed an internship at Facebook;
- He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School;
- He is married to Vivian Kao, CEO of an investment company, a former classmate.
Photo Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images/AFP
Shou Zi Chew and Vivian Kao at the Met Gala in May 2022.
- He worked for several years in the investment company DST;
- He was appointed chief financial officer of Chinese telephony giant Xiaomi in 2015;
- He joined ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, in March 2021;
- He quickly took over the management of the application, after the sudden resignation of his predecessor, the American Kevin Mayer.
- He runs the company from Singapore;
- It’s unclear how much decision-making power he has compared to ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming and other executives at the parent company;
- Shou Chew himself isn’t a big TikTok user;
- He has posted around 20 videos since last year and only has around 20,000 subscribers;