CEO Watch Motorola Names Jha co-CEO
Motorola Inc., the nation's largest mobile phone maker, named former Qualcomm executive Sanjay Jha co-Chief Executive Officer, tapping him to run the company's ailing wireless handset division.
Jha, who will share the CEO title with incumbent Greg Brown, will have the task of revamping Motorola's mobile devices division, which has seen its share of the market fall from 24 percent to 9.5 percent in the last two years. The wireless handset division has lost nearly $2 billion during that time.
"Sanjay's technical expertise and industry experience make him ideally suited to lead mobile devices," said Motorola Chairman David Dorman said in a statement, according to MarketWatch.
Motorola had spent months looking for an executive to run the division, which is will be spun off as a separate public company by mid-2009.
Brown had run the handset division for several months, taking over the job for Stu Reed, who left Motorola in March.
Jha joined Qualcomm in 1994 and was recently its CEO. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs credited Jha with helping build the firm become a major player in the world of wireless technology.
"Sanjay's leadership has been instrumental in growing Qualcomm into the No. 1 wireless semiconductor supplier," said Jacobs in a statement, according to MarketWatch.
Before joining Qualcomm, Jha worked at San Diego-based BrookTree Corp. and London-based GEC Hirst Research Labs.
