Steven R. Altman

President, Qualcomm

Steven R. Altman is president of Qualcomm Incorporated. Most recently, Altman has been executive vice president of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm Technology Licensing (QTL). QTL, under Altman, has grown to $1.33 billion in revenues in Qualcomm's Fiscal 2004. He has been a member of Qualcomm's executive committee since 1992.

Altman joined Qualcomm in 1989 and is the chief architect of the Company's strategy for leveraging its broad intellectual property portfolio into a value chain, which has accelerated the growth of CDMA technology. In this role, he has been responsible for structuring and negotiating Qualcomm's license agreements, joint ventures and strategic relationships. Under Altman's leadership, the Company has entered into more than 130 domestic and international licensing agreements with many of the world's largest telecommunications and electronics companies, including Alcatel, Ericsson, Huawei, Hyundai, LG, Lucent, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nortel, Samsung, Siemens and Sony.

Altman has played a pivotal role in driving Qualcomm's business strategies as a member of the Company's executive committee. He negotiated Qualcomm's agreement with South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in 1993 that established CDMA as the basis for South Korea's single nationwide wireless technology standard, which in turn enabled South Korea to build a major wireless products export economy based on CDMA devices and infrastructure. In 1994, he drove the joint venture and marketing agreement between Sony and Qualcomm, resulting in the creation of Qualcomm Consumer Products, and subsequently the introduction of the first CDMA digital handsets. In 1999, he negotiated the agreement with Ericsson, which ended litigation between the two companies and resulted in Ericsson's licensing of essential CDMA patents from Qualcomm and its purchase of Qualcomm's infrastructure business. Also in 1999, he oversaw the negotiation of the sale of Qualcomm's handset business to Kyocera Wireless as well as the Framework Agreement with China Unicom in 2000, which established the basis for licensing Qualcomm intellectual property to Chinese manufacturers. Also in 2000, he led Qualcomm's $1 billion acquisition of SnapTrack™, which resulted in accelerated commercialization of advanced GPS services in wireless handsets, and was a cornerstone in Qualcomm's Launchpad™ strategy.

In 1999, Qualcomm's licensee base began to include an increasing number of WCDMA licensees as GSM operators began their transition to 3G CDMA. In 1999-2002, Altman worked with WCDMA equipment providers on a global basis, extending existing agreements to include WCDMA. These agreements successfully confirmed that Qualcomm holds patents essential for all CDMA standards, including WCDMA. Today, every major manufacturer of 3G CDMA products and equipment is a Qualcomm licensee, including licenses with approximately 60 manufacturers covering WCDMA/TD-SCDMA.

Altman began his career with the San Diego law firm of Gray, Cary, Ware & Freidenrich, where he specialized in intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions, securities, and general corporate matters. He joined Qualcomm in 1989 as corporate counsel with responsibility for licensing and contracts, quickly moving up through the management ranks and becoming vice president and general counsel in 1992. He became general manager of QTL when that organization was formed in 1995; and senior vice president in 1996. In 1998, Altman was named executive vice president; and president of QTL in 2000.

Altman graduated magna cum laude Northern Arizona University in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice; he received his Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1986, graduating cum laude. Altman serves on the Board of Directors at Amylin Pharmaceuticals on their Compensation and Human Resources Committee. He also serves on the Board of Athletics at the University of California-San Diego. He is a board member of the Salk Institute. A former board member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), he remains an active supporter of the JDRF and numerous other charitable causes.

Print
Send