Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences

College of Engineering

U. C. Berkeley

Biography: Paul E. Jacobs, QUALCOMM

Home

EECS

Registration

Directions

Accommodations

Things to Do in Berkeley

Dr. Paul E. Jacobs is group president of QUALCOMM Wireless & Internet Group. In this role, Jacobs oversees QUALCOMM Internet Services, QUALCOMM Technology Licensing, QUALCOMM Wireless Business Solutions and QUALCOMM Digital Media. Dr. Jacobs is also responsible for overseeing corporate marketing, QUALCOMM ventures, standards organization, as well as corporate support engineering.

Previously, Dr. Jacobs served as executive vice president of QUALCOMM. He was responsible for leading QUALCOMM Consumer Products, QUALCOMM’s CDMA handset business, from 1995 through its sale to Kyocera Wireless in 2000. In 2001, Jacobs helped conceive the Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless ™ (BREW ™) applications platform, now part of QUALCOMM Internet Services.

Dr. Jacobs has been involved in establishing and/or managing joint ventures with Sony, Microsoft , and Ford, which enabled QUALCOMM’s entry into consumer electronics, enterprise manufacturing, software and consumer telematics, respectively. He served as CEO of QCP Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of QUALCOMM, providing contracted design and distribution services to Kyocera Wireless Corporation.

From 1990 through 1995, Dr. Jacobs held positions in QUALCOMM’s engineering organization. He led the technical team that developed the variable rate 8 kbps speech codec for CDMA, which led to one of over 25 patents belonging to Jacobs in the area of wireless technology and devices. Dr. Jacobs also led QUALCOMM’s efforts to standardize the speech codec. He also ran QUALCOMM’s wireless local loop development, which spurred the 13 kbps speech code that which provided wire line quality, and the CDMA data and fax service.

Dr. Jacobs received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989. He serves on the boards of the La Jolla Music Society, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego , and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the University of California at Berkeley College of Engineering, and Chairman of the Advisory Board of UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering.

QUALCOMM Incorporated (www.qualcomm.com) is a leader in developing and delivering innovative digital wireless communications products and services based on the Company’s CDMA digital technology. Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., QUALCOMM is included in the S&P 500 Index and is a 2003 FORTUNE 500 ® company traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market ® under the ticker symbol QCOM.