In His Own Right

Paul E. Jacobs is the current Chairman and CEO of Qualcomm the giant technology company. He was born on October 30, 1962. Paul earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1984 from the University of California, Berkeley. He also earned an M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1986 and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1989 all from the University of California, Berkeley.

After a year of post doctoral research in France he joined Qualcomm in 1990. Paul was in charge of leading the mobile phone digital signal processor software team.  Five years later he became the vice president and general manager of the combined handset and integrated circuit division.  Paul held number of positions until his appointment as CEO in July 2005 and elected Chairman in 2009.

There is something that Paul has in common with one of the company founders. He shares the same surname with Irwin M. Jacobs the person he succeeded to the company’s top posts.  Paul shares more than the surname; he is also the son of Irwin M. Jacob.

Qualcomm is not a privately held company. To have the son succeed the father is something of a rarity and naturally raises a lot of eyebrows in a publically traded company.  While Paul is aware of this he has proven that he can lead.

He is respected in his own right as an engineer. Paul has several patents to his name. There are those who view that he is a much broader thinker and visionary than his father. He isn’t only developing technology for a specific sector but looks at its broader applications. 

He has viewed the mobile phone beyond just being a voice technology instrument. Paul sees the whole world connected together wirelessly with microchips implanted everywhere. These devices can be placed in such things as a Band- Aid which can monitor the health of the area of concern and send the information to a mobile phone or other devices.

His push in this direction has given Qualcomm a head start over such rivals as Intel with respect to mobile smart phone communication and applications.  This is why Paul is a well-compensated CEO and you don’t hear anyone challenging his leaderships.  He holds the top two positions in the company in his own right.