Henry C. Yuen Biography

Henry C. Yuen

Yuen's family moved came to the United States from China when he was 17 years old. He received a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1973. He later earned a law degree from the Loyola University School of Law. Yuen and his college friend Daniel Kwoh founded Gemstar International to manufacture electronic products in 1989. Yuen and Kwoh invented the VCR Plus, offered for sale in 1990, to make it easier to record TV programs. Sales skyrocketed and consumer electronics manufacturers paid Gemstar for the right to use the technology in their products. Gemstar also gets royalties from TV Guide magazine, which publishes the number assigned to each program. By the late 1990s, Gemstar was worth $3 billion. The company came under the scrutiny of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Oct. 2002 and Yuen was fired from Gemstar in April 2003. The SEC case was settled in January 2005 on undisclosed terms.