Engineering entrepreneur exits Qualcomm

For most people, the prevailing picture of the serious design engineer is of a person wholly consumed by the world of engineering. If it isn’t a design issue, it certainly can’t be important. And, of course, engineers are not businessmen.

Andrew Viterbi was definitely not a model for that stereotype. Five years after receiving his PhD from the University of Southern California, Viterbi wrote THE paper on Viterbi decoding, a recursive algorithm particularly efficient for performing exhaustive searches. This paper “Error Bounds for Convolutional Codes and an Asymptotically Optimum Decoding Algorithm,” not only won Viterbi the IEEE Information Theory Outstanding Paper Award in 1967, but also established a technique used in virtually all forms of satellite systems and wireless phones.

But a slew of technical awards, papers, and patents aren’t the only things that Viterbi would add to the world of communications. In 1968, Viterbi, along with colleague Irwin Jacobs, founded Linkabit Corp., a company he stayed with and held various executive positions in until 1985.

From Linkabit, Viterbi moved on to co-found Qualcomm, where he served as vice-chairman of the board of directors since the company’s inception in 1985. Viterbi played various roles at the company, including chief technical officer. It was here that he masterminded CDMA, a technology integral to wire- less communications. Qualcomm, now one of the world’s premiere telecom companies, continues to vigorously promote the CDMA technology, including next-generation derivatives targeted at achieving 3G wireless connectivity.

Viterbi, who retired from Qualcomm on March 9, is one engineer who not only changed the landscape of telecommunications with his engineering expertise, but also used his business savvy to market those technologies to the widest audience possible — no mean feat.