Longtime Garmin CEO Min Kao Steps Down
Min Kao, the co-founder and CEO of navigation company Garmin, is stepping down at the end of the year. The new head honcho is Clifton Pemble — who joined Garmin as an engineer in 1989, and has most recently been president and COO. Shares of Garmin were trading up slightly this morning. As Arik Hesseldahl recalled this summer, Kao had long resisted the encroachment of smartphones, dismissing them as a commodity business.
Dr. Min Kao co-founded Garmin Corporation with Gary Burrell in October 1989 to integrate Global Positioning System (GPS) technology into navigation devices for multiple markets. Dr. Kao is credited with the breakthrough design and engineering of the GPS software technology that formed the foundation of the original Garmin product line. Today he directs the business development initiatives and strategic planning for all of Garmin worldwide.
Prior to founding Garmin, Dr. Kao served as a systems analyst at Teledyne Systems for inertial, radio navigation and fire control systems. While at Magnavox Advanced Products, he designed the Kalman filter algorithms for Phase II GPS user equipment. He later served as engineering group leader with King Radio Corporation and Allied Signal, where he led the development of the first GPS navigator to be certified by the FAA. Dr. Kao has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University. His career began at the University of Tennessee where he earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and was involved in research for NASA and the U.S. Army.
Dr. Min Kao co-founded Garmin Corporation with Gary Burrell in October 1989 to integrate Global Positioning System (GPS) technology into navigation devices for multiple markets. Dr. Kao is credited with the breakthrough design and engineering of the GPS software technology that formed the foundation of the original Garmin product line. Today he directs the business development initiatives and strategic planning for all of Garmin worldwide.
Prior to founding Garmin, Dr. Kao served as a systems analyst at Teledyne Systems for inertial, radio navigation and fire control systems. While at Magnavox Advanced Products, he designed the Kalman filter algorithms for Phase II GPS user equipment. He later served as engineering group leader with King Radio Corporation and Allied Signal, where he led the development of the first GPS navigator to be certified by the FAA. Dr. Kao has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University. His career began at the University of Tennessee where he earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and was involved in research for NASA and the U.S. Army.
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