San Diego, Ca., USA - March 5, 2014, San Diego, Ca., USA - Qualcomm Incorporated, a developer of wireless technologies, announced the management transition of Steve Mollenkopf to chief executive officer and Paul E. Jacobs to executive chairman of the board of directors.
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Mr. Mollenkopf has been with Qualcomm for more than 20 years in a variety of leadership positions, most recently as the Company’s President and Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to his role as President and COO, Mr. Mollenkopf led the Company’s chipset business, overseeing the launch of 4G technology. Over the years, he has guided the Company through the worldwide expansion of CDMA technology, the introduction of Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA) technology and the launch of 4G/LTE systems.
Mr. Mollenkopf also spearheaded the Company’s acquisition of Atheros. This was the Company’s largest acquisition to date, helping expand Qualcomm’s technologies and platforms beyond smartphones into new platforms and segments.
Mr. Mollenkopf is a published IEEE author and holds seven patents in areas such as power estimation and measurement, multi-standard transmitters and wireless communication transceiver technology. He serves as chairman of the Global Semiconductor Alliance and a member of the Board of Directors for the Semiconductor Industry Association.
Following the completion of his Ph.D. in 1989 and a year as a post-doctoral researcher at a French government lab in Toulouse, Dr. Jacobs joined the Company fulltime in 1990 as a development engineer leading the mobile phone digital signal processor software team. Five years later, Dr. Jacobs became vice president and general manager of the combined handset and integrated circuit division, which was subsequently divided into Qualcomm Consumer Products and QCT, respectively. Dr. Jacobs served as CEO from July 2005 to March 2014 and was appointed chairman in 2009.
As an innovative leader of a broad range of technical teams within Qualcomm, Dr. Jacobs has been granted more than 50 patents for his inventions in the areas of wireless technology and devices. Dr. Jacobs is chairman of the U.S.-Korea Business Council and of the Advisory Board of the University of California, Berkeley, College of Engineering; vice chairman and co-owner of the NBA Sacramento Kings; Global eHealth Foundation Ambassador; a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum; a member of the US-India CEO Forum; and serves on the Board of Directors for FIRST. ■