Cooper’s Motorola DynaTAC 8000x – Rated Among the Top 100 Greatest and Most Influential Gadgets of All Time
– TIME magazine, Oct, 25, 2010
Martin Cooper is a pioneer in the wireless communications industry, an inventor, entrepreneur and executive. He has been a contributor to the technology of personal wireless communications for over 50 years. He developed the first portable cellular phone in 1973 and is cited in the Guinness Book of World Records for making the first cellular telephone call. Cooper knew then that people needed the freedom that comes from anywhere, anytime telephony in contrast to being tethered to a desk or a car. He has been referred to as the father of portable cellular telephony and is recognized as an innovator in spectrum management.
Cooper is an activist who seeks to shape public policy in the US and globally. He is passionate about the revolution in health care and commerce that wireless technology will engender. Cooper is also an accomplished entrepreneur and futurist.
He is the Chairman and Co-Founder of DYNA, LLC, Co-Founder of ArrayComm, LLC, and GreatCall, Inc, the innovator of the Jitterbug cell phone and service. For 29 years, he led a number of major businesses at Motorola, including high-capacity paging, trunked mobile radio, and cellular radio telephone.
Following Motorola, Cooper co-founded Cellular Business Systems, Inc., a cellular billing system company. Cooper has numerous patents in the communications field and was involved in industry and government efforts to allocate new radio frequency spectrum for the land mobile radio services in the U.S., testifying before the Federal Communications Commission and the United States Senate.
He has received numerous honors and awards including the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Science Research and induction into the National Academy of Engineering in 2010. Most recently Cooper was nominated for Mikhail Gorbachev’s “The Man Who Changed the World” Award and the recipient of The Webby Awards annual Lifetime Achievement Award.
He holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Illinois Institute of Technology, was awarded an honorary doctorate by that institution, and serves on its board of trustees. Cooper has also served on the boards of several public and private companies.
At the podium Cooper discusses the inside story on the creation, evolution and future of mobile technology, the emergence of mobile health care, his thoughts on the future of social media, and his favorite part – making the very first cellular telephone call to none other than his direct competitor AT&T back in 1973.
Martin Cooper continues to write and lecture around the world about wireless communications, technological innovation, the Internet, and R&D management. He lives in California with his wife and partner at Dyna, LLC, wireless industry veteran Arlene Harris.
