Report: Qualcomm's COO Steve Mollenkopf Joins The Possible Candidates For Next Microsoft CEO

Bloomberg today reported that Microsoft board is considering Qualcomm’s Chief Operating Officer Steve Mollenkopf among candidates to replace CEO Steve Ballmer. This is the first report revealing that Mollenkopf is on the list of several choices which are under serious consideration by Microsoft’s board. Mollenkopf at Qualcomm is responsible for the popular mobile processors which powers leading smartphones including Nokia Lumia 1520, Galaxy S4, etc,.

Also Bloomberg once again confirmed that other people in the list also includes Microsoft executive Satya Nadella and external candidates including Ford CEO Alan Mulally.

READ: Steve Mollenkopf Will NOT Become CEO of Microsoft; Made President and CEO of Qualcomm

Steve’s profile from Qualcomm,

Since 2008, Mollenkopf led QCT and served as executive vice president and group president of Qualcomm, driving growth and providing critical technical and operational leadership. QCT is the world’s largest wireless chip supplier and fabless semiconductor company, in terms of revenue.

Under Mollenkopf’s leadership, QCT also completed the $3B acquisition of Atheros, the Company’s largest acquisition to date, to accelerate the expansion of Qualcomm’s technologies and platforms to new businesses beyond cellular and provide access to significant new growth opportunities.

Mollenkopf joined Qualcomm in 1994 as an engineer and was a leading contributor to the Globalstar project before joining the QCT team in 1999. He played a central role in developing QCT’s roadmap and led the development and commercialization of the 3GPP family of air interface technologies. His technical and business leadership have also been critical to the development and implementation of multiple industry-leading innovations.

A published IEEE author, Mollenkopf holds patents in areas such as power estimation and measurement, multi-standard transmitter system and wireless communication transceiver technology. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Semiconductor Industry Association and also serves as Co-Chairman of the Global Semiconductor Alliance Board of Directors to include their Executive Committee and CEO Council.

Mollenkopf holds two electrical engineering degrees, a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech and a Master of Science in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Source: Bloomberg