Taiwan-based TFT-LCD manufacturer AU Optronics Corporation has appointed Chen Laizhu, its former general manager, as CEO of the company and the new appointment will take effect from January 1, 2009.

At the same time, AUO's current CEO Chen Xuanbin will serve as vice chairman of the board and be responsible for AUO's medium and long-term strategy and the improvement of its competitive strength.

According to AUO, Chen Laizhu was appointed president and COO of AUO in September 2007. Through his leadership such as deploying AUO Green Solutions, AUO has already become a stronger company and the management team has proven themselves ready to assume larger responsibilities for the future. Therefore, as had been laid out in the original plan, Chen was promoted to the position of president and CEO of the company.

Prior to this, AUO published its unaudited financial report for the third quarter of 2008, which says the company made net profit of NTD860 million, the lowest net profit over the past six quarters and a decrease of 96% compared with the NTD22.57 billion net profit in the same period last year. In addition, affected by the global financial crisis, AUO continues to reduce production. At present, the issue that Chen is facing is how to lead AUO to get out of this industry-wide crisis.