Mr. Ker Peng LAU
Manager, Process Engineering, GlobalFoundries, Singapore
Ker Peng epitomizes an exceptional emerging young leader, boasting 17 years of comprehensive experience in a foundry, encompassing both equipment and process domains. His journey resonates with remarkable success across diverse sectors, showcasing his ability to surmount challenges and inspire significant achievements. He is also the chairperson of GlobalFoundries GIGA+ process consortium and has played a key role in achieving a historically high record of quality indices within the department and GlobalFoundries GIGA+.
Ker Peng's standout trait is his adaptability, particularly evident in his adeptness in areas such as digital manufacturing, predictive maintenance, and advanced process control. His contributions in enabling automation processes to reach new heights, enhancing manufacturing productivity, and facilitating cross country remote engineering support demonstrate his innovative approach and technological acumen, leading to significant improvements in teamwork effectiveness and efficiency.
As a leader, Ker Peng's achievements are substantial. He spearheaded a remarkable 65% year-on-year improvement in department line yield performance in 2021, a milestone unattained in the past decade. Continuing this success, he led the team to achieve another historical high line yield performance in 203, showcasing not only his ability to achieve but also sustain and build upon success.
With the increasing industry focus on environmental sustainability, Ker Peng is also a key champion for sustainability in GF, having led cross-functional projects in GF Singapore's carbon reduction journey. One major initiative involved retrofitting tools that resulted in significantly enhanced chamber cleaning with a projected annual savings of 165,000 t of CO2 emissions and a 20% reduction in total GHG emissions out of the GF Singapore site. Notably, this project was supported by a $10 million grant from Singapore's Economic Development Board, and will contribute significantly to Singapore's goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
Ker Peng’s leadership style fosters a culture of excellence within his team, evident in the successful implementation of cost-saving initiatives yielding annual savings exceeding US$1 million, achieved through creative and innovative approaches without additional financial investments. Additionally, Ker Peng authored 3 technical posters for GlobalFoundries’ internal forums and co-authored 2 papers for ASMC 2024.
Ker Peng actively engages with the industry by nurturing and mentoring intern students, resulting in a remarkable intern retention rate exceeding 50% in his team over the past three years. This commitment to talent development enriches his organization and cultivates future industry leaders, solidifying his status as an emerging young leader poised to elevate team and company performance to new heights.
He holds a master's degree in science from the National University of Singapore and a Bachelor Honors Degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Technology Malaysia.