Irwin M. Jacobs (with Joan Klein Jacobs)
March 5, 2001 Since Irwin M. Jacobs founded Qualcomm, Inc., in 1985, the telecommunications company has grown to $3.3 billion in annual revenues by providing wireless telephone service, mobile satellite communications, and Internet software. In recent years, Jacobs backed President Clinton's successful campaign to open up trade with China, giving all but $2,000 of his political contributions to the Democratic Party. "Broad support for the Chinese market is a key goal for Qualcomm," Jacobs declared, "and essential for a global communications company." The company is an active member of the Telecommunications Industry Association, a trade group that lobbied hard for passage of the China trade bill last May. The payoff could be enormous: TIA estimates that China will have "the world's largest telephone and mobile phone markets in the world by 2005," with 600 million traditional and cellular phones. Thanks to the trade bill, companies like Qualcomm can now begin selling their services directly to Chinese consumers. Jacobs taught electrical engineering and computer science at MIT and the University of California at San Diego before moving into the private sector in 1972. The Smithsonian Award Program recently recognized his "outstanding contributions to global integration through the use of information technology." And President Clinton, a recipient of some of Jacobs' "outstanding contributions," presented the Qualcomm founder with the National Medal of Technology Award "for extraordinary achievements in the commercialization of technology." -- Jennifer Karlin | | |
