TAIPEI (TVBS News) — In a stunning corporate upheaval that has shaken Taiwan's transportation industry, Allen Ko (柯勝峯), the longtime chairman of KYMCO (光陽), the island's dominant scooter manufacturer, abruptly resigned his position on Thursday (April 10) while issuing a rare public apology. Ko candidly attributed his departure to irreconcilable differences among major shareholders that have increasingly paralyzed decision-making and eroded the company's market position.
In an unusually transparent corporate disclosure, Ko laid bare the power struggle dividing the company between two warring family factions. As representative of KYMCO's largest shareholding family, Ko described a fundamental strategic disagreement with CEO Ko Chun-ping (柯俊斌), who controls less than 20% of company shares. The outgoing chairman claimed his rival views the scooter business as a declining industry deserving minimal investment — a conservative philosophy Ko blames for organizational paralysis and the recent surrender of KYMCO's 22-year market dominance.
The departing chairman detailed a pattern of systematic obstruction, alleging that CEO Ko Chun-bin routinely blocked his strategic initiatives to raise prices, scale back promotional activities, and slash marketing expenditures. These boardroom conflicts have reportedly fostered deep organizational divisions throughout the company. Ko, who has led KYMCO since June 2014, further claimed his rival has formed an alliance with Ko Chun-chi (柯俊吉), chairman of Guang Zhou, in a coordinated effort to remove him from leadership following upcoming board elections.
In a last-ditch effort to resolve the governance crisis, Ko revealed he had approached the company's third-largest family shareholder with a radical proposal: all three dominant family groups would withdraw from direct management, ceding control to professional executives who could operate without familial entanglements. This modernization plan reportedly faced fierce resistance from Ko Chun-bin, who allegedly pressured the third family to reject the arrangement. The outgoing chairman emphasized that an alliance between the first and third shareholder families could still enable KYMCO's successful revitalization.
