2020 Article on life during COVID-19 Pandemic
During my two year terms as President of the Board of Directors of the UC San Diego Alumni Association (200,000+ strong, Go Tritons!), wrote this article on work, travel, education, and my (mild) case of COVID-19
WhyMax?
2006 (From the Vault)—- WiMax, in the Mid-2000’s was the lead horse (at least with press and influencers) to be the next 4G standard, and some thought it’s dominance was sealed in and fated. Wimax was going to be the death of the incumbent Wireless Operators and Qualcomm…I said “not so fast”, and participated in intense debates over the all over the globe on what would be the 4G standard…and more importantly WHY 3G’s evolution would win. Hence “WhyMax”
This is a long, maybe TLDR document today, but the intro sections on “How Wireless Works” and “How wireless standards are set” are 100% relevant today as we migrate to 5G. Read the first few chapters, still timely and educational!
Adventures in the Wi-Fi World
From the Vault: Almost 20 Years ago, Wi-Fi was going to destroy 3G and all other wireless technologies.
This was sort a seminal piece for me. Like the other long form pieces, it was 100% written by me, not staff. In fact, this one I did a bit stealthy, having tired of the misinformation at the time, namely that with the emergence of the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard, that 3G and Cellular were DEAD. Not. So. Fast.
Smart Phone description— years before the i-phone
From the Vault: June 1997—-Ten years before the i-phone was released, envisioning the world of Wireless Data enabled phones. Heck, the industry did not know what to call the category…so we settled, in June ‘97 on “Smart Phone”. This was in conjunction with Qualcomm’s launch of the PDQ Phone, which integrated a “Palm Pilot” data assistant with a CDMA phone.
"This TV ad's emphasis on data-related services is part of Qualcomm's approach for each of our phones to ultimately be a 'smart' phone. Our palmsized 'Q' phone is designed to have capabilities which can grow with our customers," Belk said.
96 Hours to the Stone Age
From the Vault (Writing for GigaOm): In 2011, a bunch of Tech Execs and I did a “field trip” to a Wireless Operator’s central facility for a certain geography. Although impressive from a tech standpoint, from a “hardened infrastructure” standpoint, it hardly made the grade. Ten years later, with many hurricanes, Texas winter outages, and Wildfires and other disasters, this one’s worth a read….as unfortunately, it could have been written yesterday…
2019 UC San Diego: Alumni Center
Article I wrote in September 2019 on the kick-off of campaign for UC San Diego to build it’s Alumni Center. As the school is only 60 years old, an alumni center is both much needed and long overdue!
Sacred Cows
From the Vault: While SVP, Global Marketing at Qualcomm, I wrote this as a chapter for a CMO Marketing Book (which never got published). Prescient, with lots of good lessons and why I haven’t let my kids go into marketing! Given a pretty unconventional deep dive look at how the gulf between B-2-B marketing execs and their company’s objectives can diverge—-and how to prevent it….
Building a Great Board
In June 2018, Jeremy Glazer, Mintz Partner, and Co-chair of Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Practice, invited me to participate in a podcast and share my views on Board of Directors Best Practice for Venture backed (and other) companies. Enjoy!
2018 Financial Times Article on Better Boardrooms
2018 Article I wrote for the Financial Times Board of Directors Publication “The Agenda”. Main idea? Your employees need to understand what your Board EXPECTS!
If you have a Board of Directors, work with a Board of Directors, or might work with a Board, it’s worth a read, as it exposes an under-discussed aspect of Board-Company Executive interaction.
Founding an Incubator: The Basement at UC San Diego
In 2015, along with my wife Kim, and two other founders, co-founded and have Chaired Undergraduate Entrepreneur Incubator at UC San Diego. The Basement, still thriving today, helps incubate entrepreneurial skills for undergraduates, as well as provides programs, mentoring and more for them to develop business plans, and start/grow companies.
Press Release of joining InterDigital (from Board) as EVP, Business Dev.
In 2018, left Board of Directors after 8+ years to head Global Business Development and be relocated to China…Great experience. Challenging timing, given the macro IP/business challenges between China and the USA…still a challenge today.