The 59-year-old son of a policeman has already signalled a more caring attitude as the factory deaths throw a spotlight on what critics say is a harsh, militaristic management style at the technology assembly company.

"I've slept very little in the past 40 days. We spent a lot of efforts on the matters in China. This is a trial for us," Gou told an annual general meeting in Taipei on Tuesday as dozens of activists protested outside.

"We are adopting all possible measures to save lives. We have learned a very valuable experience," he assured his investors.

Gou's woes escalated last month when Chinese and international media widely reported the two latest suicides in Foxconn's southern China plant, unleashing a storm of criticism from labour groups at home and abroad.

Technology giants Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Nokia and Sony all said they were looking into labour conditions at Foxconn, whose Shenzhen site is a city-within-a-city churning out brand-name gadgets to all corners of the world.

There is no shortage of amenities for the Shenzhen plant's 300,000 workers. But labour activists say long hours, low pay and high pressure have bred a culture of despair that explains 10 workers jumping to their deaths this year.

Observers say Gou's management style, while enabling him to build the world's largest electronics contractor, has also caused the problems plaguing his company now.

"Gou is a tough and stern leader... he is a visionary, and he is bold," said Wu Chung-shien, a business professor at Aletheia University in Taipei who has published two books on the Foxconn chairman.

"His militarised management style is his strength but it is also his shortcoming."

Gou was born in 1950 in Taipei county to Chinese immigrant parents, who had fled the communist victory in China's civil war. He studied shipping management in college while supporting himself with part-time jobs.

He started his business in 1974 making television parts with an investment of 100,000 Taiwan dollars (3,125 US dollars at current exchange rates) from his mother, and later began producing computer parts.

Now employing 900,000 staff worldwide, he is listed as Taiwan's richest man by Forbes magazine with a net worth of 5.9 billion US dollars.

Gou's story is typical of a special class of Taiwanese entrepreneurs that rode on the wave of the island's post-war boom.

Many have compared him to late tycoon Y.C. Wang, who was also from a humble background and built the Formosa Plastics Group from scratch to become one of the island's most respected and richest entrepreneurs.

Gou's success has come at a cost, according to observers.

"There is obviously a lack of humanitarian touch," said Joseph Cheng, a professor at the City University of Hong Kong.

"They give higher pay but demand tremendous discipline and concentration without considering the human needs of the workers."

Gou has said the suicides were not "directly work-related" and that they reflected deeper structural and social problems in the transformation of China's economy.

But he may have to transform himself too to keep up with the new times, according to analysts.

"As Chinese society and culture change, Gou needs to be more flexible and treat workers like partners rather than machines as the workers want dignity and need hope," Wu said.

Gou, who lost his first wife and a younger brother to cancer, is known for his charitable endeavours in cancer research and says he intends to donate most of his assets to charity.

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