DIVERSITY/CAREERS MAGAZINE FEATURES SOLOMON CHEN

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Diversity/Careers Magazine

01/10/12

Superior CEO and Chairman, Solomon Chen, was featured in the December 2011-January 2012 issue of Diversity/Careers in Engineering & Information Technology. The article (below), by Angela M. Hutchinson, focuses on Solomon's success as an entrepreneur as well as Superior's role as a key supplier to Verizon. Diversity/Careers serves engineering and IT professionals and highlights the accomplishments of women, people with disabilities, and people of color who work in the technology field.

Superior Communications has been a Verizon supplier since 1999
In 1991 Solomon Chen founded Superior Communications (Irwindale, CA), a company that manufactures and distributes cell phone accessories and provides packaging services and marketing support to clients like Verizon. As CEO of Superior, Chen is responsible for the company's strategic vision, overall direction and much more.

Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan. "Upon my arrival in the U.S. my English-speaking skills were subpar and I had no American college education. My best option to make a living was to be an entrepreneur," Chen explains.

Superior Communications has been a certified MBE since 1991, with Verizon as a client since 1999. Chen notes that Verizon has a long history of supporting minority business enterprises; its formal program launched in 1984. "It's an honor to be selected as a supplier to one of America's premier companies," Chen says. "We've shown that we can deliver to Verizon's requirements and help them remain competitive in a challenging business environment."

Chen notes that Superior and Verizon have "matching corporate principles. We believe in using diversity as a positive tool to get involved with the communities we do business in, to benefit customers and employees alike."

As Chen sees it, "Anytime a minority individual attempts to break into a business where the rules are set by a different majority, automatically there will be a barrier, but it's a barrier that can be overcome. This is true regardless where you do business around the world."

Chen's advice to other Asian American businesses is to keep an open mind, stick with your principles, and "Think of your market from a global perspective, not just the Americas."