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Irwin Jacobs Bio

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A Fireside Chat with Irwin Jacobs - Telecommunications Engineer, Entrepreneur, and Philanthropist

 May 21, 2009, 6:00 - 8:00pm

Advanced Technology Manufacturing Center
151 Martine Street, Fall River, MA

 Irwin Jacobs, who grew up in New Bedford, has had an unusual career trajectory embracing both change and opportunity.  He started a degree in hotel management but soon changed to engineering.  He left an MIT faculty position to join a start-up university on the other side of the country and then left his academic career to run a start-up company he had co-founded. He led his second start-up, QUALCOMM, for over 20 years from its creation into the Fortune 500 - the cell phone in your pocket or purse works because of the technology developed by QUALCOMM.  With the success of QUALCOMM, he has become a major philanthropist, giving to organizations in San Diego, in Cambridge, and in New Bedford.  At this Fireside Chat, Irwin will talk about his entrepreneurial experiences and what he learned along the way.  

Irwin will be joined by  Doug Banks, Editor, Mass High Tech

Welcome speaker:  Jack M. Wilson, President, University of Massachusetts


Presented by the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center, the Southern New England Entrepreneurs Forum, and MassNetComms

Registration:

Click here to Register 

A limited number of scholarships for students are available thanks to generous support of the SouthCoast Massachusetts.
Students and faculty who need support in paying registration fees please apply to Barbara McNulty at bmcnulty@umassp.edu


IRWIN MARK JACOBS

Irwin Mark Jacobs is a board member of QUALCOMM Incorporated, a company he co-founded in 1985. As CEO through 2005 and Chairman through 2009, he led the commercialization of CDMA mobile wireless technology, now adopted for all third-generation cellular communications and in use by over eight hundred million consumers worldwide for voice and mobile broadband Internet access.  He holds thirteen CDMA patents.  QUALCOMM has been named for 11 consecutive years to the Fortune list of The 100 Best Companies To Work For, ranking 16th in 2009.

Dr. Jacobs previously served as co-founder, CEO and chairman of LINKABIT Corporation, leading the development of Very Small Aperture Earth Terminals (VSATs) and the VideoCipherŪ satellite-to-home TV system. LINKABIT merged with M/A-COM in August 1980, and Dr. Jacobs served as executive vice president and a member of the board of directors until his resignation in April 1985.  Over 50 San Diego communications companies trace their roots to LINKABIT.

From 1959 to 1966, Dr. Jacobs was an assistant, then associate professor of electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  From 1966 to 1972 he served as  professor of computer science and engineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).  While at MIT, Dr. Jacobs co-authored with Jack Wozencraft a textbook in digital communications Principles of Communication Engineering.  First published in 1965, the book remains in use today.

Dr. Jacobs received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1956 from Cornell University and master of science and doctor of science degrees in electrical engineering from MIT in 1957 and 1959, respectively.

Dr. Jacobs was named Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Salk Institute In November 2006 and Chair of the National Academy of Engineering in July 2008.
He is the recipient of numerous industry, education and business awards, including:

He and his wife Joan have been cited by Business Week among the 50 Most-Generous Philanthropists in the United States


DOUG BANKS 

Doug Banks is editor of Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology, a weekly publication and daily news web site that spotlights technology entrepreneurs, early-stage companies and emerging technologies in New England.

Doug joined MHT in 2005 and led a redesign of the publication in 2006. In that time, MHT has launched several new programs, a new web site and industry-specific newsletters including daily BioFlash and FinanceFlash as well as a weekly GreenFlash. Mass High Tech has won several recent journalism awards, including design awards in 2007 and 2008 by the New England Press Association (NEPA) and a 2007 certificate of merit for general excellence by the national Society of Business Editors and Writers (SABEW).
From 2001 to 2005, Doug was associate editor of the Boston Business Journal (BBJ). He came to the BBJ from Fast Company magazine, where he had been a staff editor after an earlier stint as a reporter/editor at the BBJ in the late 1990s.

Outside the newsroom, Doug is a steering committee member for the MIT Enterprise Forum Innovation Series and works closely with several other regional technology associations. He has taught journalism and writing at Emerson College and Boston University, and other colleges. He is vice president of the board of directors at Housing Families Inc., a Massachusetts nonprofit that provides housing for homeless families, and is an advisory board member of Families for Depression Awareness, a Waltham nonprofit that aims to help families recognize and cope with depressive disorders.

A native of Worcester, Banks received a bachelor's degree in journalism and English literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a master's of fine arts in nonfiction writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the father of two children, ages 9 and 7.


JACK WILSON 

Jack M. Wilson is the 25th President of the five-campus, 60,000-student University of Massachusetts System-serving since September 2, 2003. During his career, he has served various institutions as Professor of Physics, Department Chair, Research Center Director, Dean, Vice President, Provost, and a private sector entrepreneur. At the University of Massachusetts, he served previously as the Vice President for Academic Affairs and as founding CEO of UMassOnline.

Prior to arriving at UMass, Wilson was the J. Erik Jonsson '22 Distinguished Professor of Physics, Engineering Science, Information Technology, and Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he also had served as a Dean, Research Center Director, and Provost. Before being appointed at Rensselaer, he served at the University of Maryland, College Park and as an officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Institute of Physics, and the American Physical Society.

At the University of Massachusetts, Wilson called for a rededication to the land grant mission as it might be viewed in the context of a modern innovative society. In order to emphasize the critical role that the University plays in the Commonwealth, he would often assert that: "The path to economic and social development in Massachusetts goes through the University of Massachusetts."

Believing that financial aid is the key to affordability and accessibility, Wilson has increased the allocation of internal funds to financial aid by over 150 percent during his first five years at a time when financial aid from other sources was not growing substantially.

Recognizing that the University was in dire need of an investment in infrastructure, he restructured the UMass Building Authority and launched a building program that has made $1.6 billion in capital investments in the first five years and has established a capital program of $2.9 billion more to be carried out over the next decade.

He created Presidential grant programs to encourage the growth of research and the creative economy. He established International programs as a major priority and recruited the first Vice President to carry the title "International Relations" as part of her title. He identified Africa, Japan, China, Germany, India, and the Portuguese language countries as particular first targets of opportunity-building on existing relationships of the university and his own work.

As the CEO of UMassOnline, he helped to build the system-wide initiative into one of the largest externally directed online programs in the United States, with 64 graduate and undergraduate degree and certificate programs now serving more than 37,000 enrollees.

Wilson is nationally and internationally known for his leadership in the reform of higher education programs, winning the Theodore Hesburgh Award, the Boeing Award, and the Pew Charitable Trust Prize for his innovative programs. He was awarded an Outstanding Civilian Service Medal by the U.S. Army for service to the Army Education program. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He has also served as a member or chair of several National Academy of Science and National Research Council study committees and task forces. Wilson was the founder, CEO, and Chairman of the LearnLinc Corporation, founded in 1993 as a spin-off of his university research. After several mergers he formed the publicly traded (NASDAQ) Mentergy Corporation, leaving the company in the next year. Wilson's expertise in building links between higher education, government and business led to his becoming the co-founder of the Paul Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship as well as other programs. He has served as a consultant to many computing and communications firms including IBM, AT&T, Lucent, Hewlett Packard, and Boeing Flight Safety International.

Wilson earned his bachelor's degree at Thiel College in 1967, his master's degree in 1970 and his doctorate in 1972 in Physics, both from Kent State University. He lives with his wife Judi and their two children, John and Jessica, in Westborough, Massachusetts. He also has two grown daughters, Erika and Gretchen, and four wonderful grandchildren: Kipras, Lena, Nida, and Norris.

 

Irwin Jacobs

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