Huang, Lieh-Ho
Huang, Lieh-Ho, a native of Lukang, Changhua, was a Taiwanese entrepreneur. He was the founder of Hotai Motor and Wei Chuan Foods. He was also one of the founders of Ho Tai Development Co., Ltd.. He developed the automobile and food industries and was known as the "Father of Taiwan's Dairy Industry".
Career
Huang was born in Lukang District, Taichung Prefecture during the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan. He lost his father at a young age and was raised by his widowed mother. He was an early self-made entrepreneur in Taiwan. In 1938, he went to Kobe, Japan with five friends to establish the Hotai & Co., which engaged in the trading of cotton cloth and sundries. Later he went to China to do business.When World War II ended, Huang returned to Taiwan in February 1946. In September 1947, Hotai & Co. resumed business in Taiwan and established branches in Shanghai and Tianjin. The following year, it signed agency agreements with Toyota Motor and Yokohama Rubber in Taiwan and entered the transportation industry. With his entrepreneurial success, Huang founded the Hotai Chemical Industry Company in 1953, starting out by producing monosodium glutamate. The following year, it was renamed Wei Chuan Foods Corporation. In the past, Wei Chuan enjoyed a great reputation, and there was a saying in Taiwan: "Wei Chuan in the North and Uni-President in the South", meaning that the Taiwanese food industry was dominated by two companies. Wei Chuan was also the first food company in Taiwan to be listed on the stock market.
In 1955, Hotai & Co. was reorganized into Hotai Trading. In 1959, Su Yanhui joined Hetai Trading. In 1963, Huang and Su founded Hotai Development, starting out by producing and exporting stainless steel tableware. In 1968, Hotai Trading was reorganized into Hotai Automobile, with Huang as chairman and Su as general manager. In 1968, Huang resigned as chairman of Hotai Motor and was succeeded by the then general manager Su. Because Huang had a deep friendship with the Japanese Toyota family, Su established a close cooperative relationship with Toyota Motor through Huang.
In 1986, Huang resigned as chairman of Wei Chuan and was succeeded by his eldest son Huang Keming. After retirement, Huang devoted himself to charity work. In addition to the "Hotai Chunching Social Welfare Foundation", "Wei Chuan Cultural and Educational Foundation" and “Chweng Ching Child Nutrition Research Foundation” established when he was running his business, he also established the "HLH Social Welfare Foundation".
In 1998, Ting Hsin International Group took over Wei Chuan Foods, and the Huang family decided to withdraw from the management of Wei Chuan. On the afternoon of March 21, 2010, he died of cardiopulmonary failure at his home in Wei Chuan Pushin Ranch, Yangmei District, Taoyuan City at the age of 98.