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Albert Chen, who built Carmel-based Telamon Corp. into an $800 million company with more than 1,400 employees, plans to retire as CEO and chairman of the board on Oct. 1, the company announced Thursday.
Chen, who founded the company 30 years ago, will remain with Telamon in the position of executive chairman of the board. Chief Operating Officer Stan Chen, Albert’s son, will become CEO.
Stephanie Chen Fuhrmann, Albert’s daughter and president of Telamon’s Telecom Solutions division, will take over as COO.
Telemon, a provider of services to telecom companies and other industries, is the third-largest minority-owned company in the Indianapolis area, based on local employment of 240.
It ranks as the sixth-largest private company in the area, and the 13th-largest private company in the state, based on 2014 revenue of $815 million.
Albert Chen, a native of Taiwan who came to the U.S. in 1968 at age 25, launched Telamon as a telecommunications services supplier in 1985 after he spent more than a decade with GTE. The company branched out over the years and now also provides services in energy management, industrial assembly, business-process outsourcing and telehealth.
Chen was featured as a “Champion of Innovation” in IBJ’s special “Innovation Issue” on May 30.
Besides Indiana, the company has operations in California, New Jersey, Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Kansas, Illinois, Mexico and China.
In a written statement, Telamon said Albert Chen will continue to advise company executives on strategic matters, including joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, talent assessment, coaching and mentoring.
“I believe that this is the right time for me to retire for multiple reasons,” Chen said in the statement. “First, with various organizational realignments and new key hires, Telamon has a team in place that is capable of accelerating Telamon’s growth in the various industries we serve. And secondly, Stan Chen has been preparing for his new role as my successor for several years …”
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