Shou Chew, the chief executive of TikTok, will appear before Congress for the first time on Thursday, as the sole witness in a hearing on the dangers of the video app. TikTok is owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, which has raised concerns that the app could share sensitive US user data with the Chinese government.
It’s become a rite of passage for tech chiefs like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai to endure tough questions as witnesses in congressional hearings about the potential harms of their products. But Chew, 40, is not from Silicon Valley and stands apart from those other executives.
The Singaporean-born executive will serve as a deflector for TikTok, taking heat from the app while touting its popularity and how it serves as a platform for creators and small businesses. Mr. Chew has repeatedly denied TikTok’s ties to China. And he has highlighted that he lives in Singapore with his wife and his two children.
“I am responsible for all the strategic decisions at TikTok,” Chew said in November at the New York Times DealBook conference.
Mr. Chew took the helm of TikTok in May 2021 amid deep scrutiny over the app’s ties to China. He studied economics at University College London. He then joined Goldman Sachs in investment banking and later received an MBA from Harvard.
During business school, Mr. Chew interned at Facebook and, after earning his business degree, joined venture firm DST Global. He is fluent in Mandarin and became the point person for DST in China. Mr. Chew helped invest in a Chinese news aggregator that eventually became TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
In early 2021, Mr. Chew joined TikTok as CFO. He was soon named CEO, replacing Kevin Mayer, a former Disney executive who stepped down after a few months.
Mr. Chew was asked to bring financial discipline to the company and chart a path to profitability. He stayed out of the limelight until late last fall, when national security questions mounted against the app.
In recent months, Mr. Chew has been on a global charm offensive to try to convince governments that TikTok protects user privacy and is not influenced by China’s communist leaders. He also met members of Congress, regulators in Europe and world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.
