Samuel Ginn

Last updated

Samuel Lou Ginn (born 3 April 1937), is an American businessman.

Contents

Early life

Samuel Lou Ginn was born on April 3, 1937, in Anniston, Alabama. He is a 1959 graduate of Auburn University's College of Engineering, and was awarded the institution's honorary doctorate in 1998. He was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 1992. Married to Ann Vance Ginn, they have three children and six grandchildren. [1]

Career

Ginn has more than four decades of experience in the telecommunications industry. Following his service with the Army Signal Corps, he built a 27-year career with AT&T beginning as a student engineer in 1960. He rose through the ranks in management and operations, and in 1977 was appointed vice president of network operations for AT&T Long Lines.

After the Bell Systems breakup, Ginn joined Pacific Telephone in 1978 as vice president in Los Angeles, going on to serve as chairman and CEO of Pacific Telesis from 1988 until 1994. When he resigned, Ginn launched AirTouch Communications, an early pioneer in the cellular industry that went public in 1994 with an IPO of $10 billion.

In 1999, the company was sold for $65 billion to Vodafone where Ginn assumed the position of chairman in the United Kingdom. During his tenure, Vodafone merged with Verizon to create Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless telecommunications network in the U.S. Ginn retired from Vodafone in 2000.

Ginn serves on the boards of Franklin Templeton and ICO Global Communications. His past corporate board memberships have included CH2M Hill, First Interstate Bank, Pacific Telesis Group, Safeway, Transamerica Corporation, Vodafone, AirTouch Communications, Chevron Corporation, Hewlett-Packard and the Fremont Group. He has also served as chairman of the California Business-Higher Education Forum, the California Business Roundtable and the Committee on Jobs. He is an overseer at the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, as well as a Sloan Fellow at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. [1] In 2015, Ginn was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame for his dedication to the wireless industry. [2]

Philanthropy

Ginn was appointed by Gov. Bob Riley for an at large seat on the Auburn University Board of Trustees in 2005. His term expired on February 16, 2012. His $25 million gift to the Auburn University College of Engineering in 2001 helped fund a wireless engineering degree program and has helped vault Auburn into the nation's elite wireless research and teaching institutions. In recognition of the gift, the college was renamed the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. Mr. Ginn continues his involvement with Auburn through its wireless advisory board.

The Ginn Family Foundation was founded in 2005 to provide funding for institutions and organizations that provide continuing and long-term societal, educational, and cultural benefit to the community. Through its grant activities, the Foundation supports organizations that produce solutions for social problems, and that educate, and/or train young people to be self-supporting. In addition, the foundation provides support for civic and cultural organizations that enhance the quality of life in California and in other communities. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regional Bell Operating Company</span> U.S. regional telephone company created by 1984 break of AT&T

A Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) was a corporate entity created as result of the antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice against the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1974 and settled in the Modification of Final Judgment on January 8, 1982.

Pacific Telesis Group (PacTel) was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies, sometimes also referred to as "RBOCs" or "Baby Bells", created in 1983 in preparation of the breakup of AT&T Corporation. Pacific Telesis was the holding company for Pacific Bell, Nevada Bell, Pacific Telesis International, PacTel Mobile Services and PacTel InfoSystems. Pacific Telesis was headquartered in San Francisco and incorporated in Nevada. It was acquired by SBC Communications in 1997, which would eventually become today’s AT&T Inc.

Arun Sarin is an Indian-American telecommunications executive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward S. Rogers Jr.</span> Canadian businessman

Edward Samuel "Ted" Rogers Jr., was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist who served as the president and CEO of Rogers Communications. He was the fifth-richest person in Canada in terms of net worth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Seidenberg</span>

Ivan Seidenberg is the former chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Whitacre Jr.</span> American businessman

Edward Earl Whitacre Jr. is the former Chairman and CEO of General Motors. He is also a former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AT&T, previously Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC). He served as national president of the Boy Scouts of America from 1998 to 2000. On September 1, 2010, Whitacre stepped down as CEO, and retired as chairman of the board by the end of 2010.

Robert William "Bob" Galvin was an American executive. He was the son of the founder of Motorola, Paul Galvin, and served as the CEO of Motorola from 1959 to 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breakup of the Bell System</span> 1982 U.S. government action to end AT&T Corps monopoly over telephone services

The breakup of the Bell System was mandated on January 8, 1982, by a consent decree providing that AT&T Corporation would, as had been initially proposed by AT&T, relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies, which had provided local telephone service in the United States. This effectively took the monopoly that was the Bell System and split it into entirely separate companies that would continue to provide telephone service. AT&T would continue to be a provider of long-distance service, while the now-independent Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), nicknamed the "Baby Bells", would provide local service, and would no longer be directly supplied with equipment from AT&T subsidiary Western Electric.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AirTouch</span> U.S. communications company

AirTouch Communications was an American wireless telephone service provider, created as a spin-off of Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were located in the One California building in the Financial District of San Francisco, California. After a series of mergers, the company's vestiges are now part of Verizon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irwin M. Jacobs</span> American businessman, founder of Qualcomm (born 1933)

Irwin Mark Jacobs is an American electrical engineer and businessman. He is a co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm, and chair of the board of trustees of the Salk Institute. As of 2019, Jacobs has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion.

Lawrence T. Babbio Jr., generally called Larry, is a former vice chairman and president of Verizon, with responsibility for the Verizon Telecom and Verizon Business units. He was also a member of the board of directors of Verizon Wireless. Since 2007, Babbio has been a senior adviser to Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm. He currently serves as the CEO of Afiniti.

Sir Julian Michael Horn-Smith is a British businessman who is a member of the boards of a number of international corporations and an advisor to others. He was deputy chief executive of Vodafone until July 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CTIA (organization)</span> Trade association

CTIA is a trade association representing the wireless communications industry in the United States. The association was established in 1984 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit membership organization, and represents wireless carriers and suppliers, and manufacturers and providers of wireless products and services.

Dennis F. Strigl is an American corporate executive. He is the retired president, chief executive officer, and chief operating officer of Verizon Wireless, responsible for operations at Verizon Telecom, Verizon Wireless and Verizon Business. He was appointed on January 1, 2007, and worked for Verizon for about three years until his retirement on December 31, 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lowell McAdam</span> American businessman (born 1954)

Lowell Clayton McAdam is an American businessman. He is the former chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications, a company he joined in 2000.

Wireless Engineering is the branch of engineering which addresses the design, application, and research of wireless communication systems and technologies.

The Program on Information Resources Policy (PIRP) was a research program at Harvard University, sometimes referred to informally as "Harvard's think tank on the information age." See for a complete explanation. It was established on February 1, 1973 by Anthony Oettinger and John LeGates and closed on June 30, 2011 by the same principals. It worked in the realm of communications and information resources. At most points in its history it employed as many as 15 full time staffers, mostly professionals, as well as hosting scores of visiting scholars and sponsored researchers over the years. At any given time it was supported by about 100 different public and private organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vincent Poor</span>

Harold Vincent Poor FRS FREng is the Michael Henry Strater University Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, where he is also the Interim Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is a specialist in wireless telecommunications, signal processing and information theory. He has received many honorary degrees and election to national academies. He was also President of IEEE Information Theory Society (1990). He is on the board of directors of the IEEE Foundation.

Andrew Mark Davies is president of Wind Telecomunicazioni Spa since April the 18th 2014. Formerly Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Verizon Wireless since November the 15th 2010.

References

  1. 1 2 "Samuel Ginn". www.eng.auburn.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-03-15. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  2. ↑ Wireless History Foundation (2015). "Samuel Ginn". Wireless Hall of Fame. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
  3. ↑ "The Ginn Family Foundation - About Us". ginnfamilyfoundation.org. Retrieved 2020-03-09.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.