Motorola Puts Qualcomm Exec In Charge of Handsets

Sanjay Jha Named Co-Chief Executive Officer Ahead of Mobile Devices Spinoff

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 8/4/2008 9:17:00 AM

Motorola on Monday announced the appointment of Sanjay Jha, formerly chief operating officer at Qualcomm, as co-CEO of the company and chief executive of its Mobile Devices business in preparation for the unit’s planned spinoff next year.

Greg Brown, who became chief executive after Ed Zander departed last fall, will also serve as co-CEO of Motorola and has been named chief executive of Motorola's Broadband Mobility Solutions business, which comprises the Home & Networks Mobility and Enterprise Mobility Solutions businesses.

Motorola said last week it expects to spin off the money-losing handset business in the third quarter of 2009, an action pushed by activist investor Carl Icahn.

At Qualcomm Jha, 45, was most recently responsible for overseeing corporate research and development and Qualcomm Flarion Technologies (QFT). He also served as president of the company’s CDMA chipset and software division.

Prior to joining Qualcomm in 1994, Jha held design engineering roles with Brooktree and GEC Hirst Research Labs. Jha holds a doctorate in electronic and electrical engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland.