Interviewed by Tom Yamashita on 2025-08-21 © Computer History Museum Dr. Mao-Min Chen was a former President of Headway Technologies, Inc, a subsidiary of TDK Corporation based in Japan. Headway Technologies was founded in 1994 and purchased by TDK in 2000. Headway eventually became the sole wafer production and development center for TDK’s recording head operation. The wafers are processed at SAE Magnetics (HK) Ltd., a TDK group company headquartered in Hong Kong, and completed into a recording head assembly. Most of TDK’s recording heads are used in HDDs manufactured by Toshiba. Mao-Min Chen grew up in Taiwan and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He joined IBM San Jose in 1978 after graduation and remained there until 1993, working on various projects in magnetic recording and in the research and manufacturing of recording heads. He then joined Dastek, a head manufacturing operation run by Komag Inc. Dastek was closed down in 1994 and reconstituted as Headway Technologies, a joint venture between Komag, Hewlett-Packard, and Asahi-Komag Company Ltd.  Mao-Min Chen was at Headway from its inception and became Headway's head of wafer process and materials development.  He became its President in 2007 and retired from the company in 2014.  The interview covers his career at IBM, Komag, and Headway. * Note: Transcripts represent what was said in the interview. However, to enhance meaning or add clarification, interviewees have the opportunity to modify this text afterward. This may result in discrepancies between the transcript and the video. Please refer to the transcript for further information - http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/300000135 Catalog number: 300000136 Acquisition number: 2025.0121