When Cher Wang enters a roomful of people, they struggle to contain their curiosity. As Taiwan’s richest woman, founder of two important technology companies, Via and HTC, and a daughter of the island’s most revered tycoon, the late Wang Yung-ching, she is naturally a focus of public attention. But her determination to avoid it has earned her a reputation as shy and secretive.

Only since HTC, the smartphone company she set up in 1997, became a fast-rising star among global gadget makers has the 50-year-old chairman of the company engaged with the public.