He was promoted to president and chief executive officer of Siemens Nixdorf's Open Enterprise Computing Division in 1996.

[15] Sybase achieved strong financial performance and shareholder returns under Chen's leadership, including 55 consecutive quarters of profitability,[16][17] $2.8 billion of cash generated,[citation needed] and a 28 percent compound annual growth rate of its market capitalization from a low of $362 million to $5.8 billion through 2010.

[25][better source needed] He has served on the boards of CIT Group and High tech startups such as Beyond.com, Niku Corporation, Wafer Technology, and Turbolinux US.

][10] Additionally, Chen chaired the U.S.-China Policy Advisory Roundtable for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.[when?

[29] In July 2007, Sybase announced that Chen, its CEO, had been awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Northern California.

[30][31][32] Chen has also received awards from the US-Asia Institute (2009),[17] the U.S.-China Policy Foundation,[17] and the California-Asia Business Council (2007).

[17] In addition, the U.S.-Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation has recognized Chen for his corporate board work.[17][when?]

John Chen donates to children’s organisations, scholarship funds for those from rural China and the University of California, Berkeley Chang-Lin Tien Centre.