Martin Cooper
Martin Cooper conceived of the portable cellular phone and led the team that created the first phone in 1973. He has contributed to the technology of in the wireless communications industry for over 60 years as an inventor, entrepreneur and executive. He contributed to every significant advancement in wireless communications, during this time, from the first car phones and radio pagers to the latest cellular generations. He is known as the “Father of the Handheld Cellular Phone”.
During his 29 year tenure with Motorola, Cooper was a division manager and served as Corporate Director of R&D. Subsequently he started several businesses including Cellular Business Systems which he led to dominate the U.S. cellular billing industry in the 1980s as well as ArrayComm, which became a world leader in smart antenna technology. His wife, Arlene Harris and Cooper co-founded GreatCall, Inc., maker of the Jitterbug phone and service. Today, Cooper is Chairman and Co-Founder of Dyna LLC, an entrepreneurial incubator. He has served on the boards of Directors of several public and private companies.
Cooper serves on advisory committees of the U.S. Government. He has been granted eleven patents and is widely published in the communications field.
Cooper holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology on whose board of Trustees he serves.
He has received honorary doctorate degrees from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Strathclyde University in Scotland, Hasselt University in Belgium and Inha University in South Korea. The Wharton Business School gave him its Business Transformation Award.
He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, a Marconi Prize recipient, a Prince of Asturias Laureate and has received many other awards. Time Magazine, in 2007 named him one of the top 100 inventors in history.