Lap Shun “John” Hui was born in Guangdong, China in 1955, and he spent most of his youth living in Hong Kong. Hui moved to the United States in 19

The Rapid Rise of eMachines - by Bradford Morgan White

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2024-10-04 23:00:01

Lap Shun “John” Hui was born in Guangdong, China in 1955, and he spent most of his youth living in Hong Kong. Hui moved to the United States in 1973 to attend the State University of New York at Buffalo. He graduated from the university with his Bachelor’s of Science in Business Management, and he then enrolled at McMaster University in Ontario where he earned his MBA. Along the way, Hui was became a Certified Internal Auditor by the Institute of Internal Auditors and worked as the resident inspector and auditor at Citicorp. Hui chose to leave the financial industry for the computer industry in 1983. His first ventures were with Everex and Techpower which he helped to start and run. In 1993, Hui helped Korean Data Systems establish themselves in the North America by helping them found KDS USA, a US distributor of KDS’s CRT monitors.

In September of 1998, Hui arranged a joint venture between the Korean computer company TriGem and KDS to operate a commodity computer business in the USA called eMachines based in Irvine, California. With the funding, supply, contractual, and legal arrangements all sorted, Hui had to establish retail relationships. Some of these were easier than others. Dedicated computer shops didn’t have much reason to carry a new commodity computer, but they also didn’t have a reason not to do so. A little negotiation, and those were sorted. Others were far more difficult.