CONNECT Launches Hall of Fame to Honor San Diego Tech Entrepreneurs; Telecom Pioneer Irwin Jacobs to Receive First Award.

SAN DIEGO -- CONNECT has created a Hall of Fame to celebrate San Diego's entrepreneurial heroes and their contributions to the explosive growth of the region's vibrant high-tech and life science community.

As CONNECT's highest honor, the Hall of Fame will spotlight local entrepreneurs who have paved the way for today's technological innovations and businesses, and who continue to inspire future generations of entrepreneurs.

"Looking back over the past 20 years of transformation of our economy on the Torrey Mesa, it is important to recognize the entrepreneurs who built these technology companies," said Duane Roth, CONNECT's Executive Director. "The CONNECT entrepreneurial Hall of Fame will memorialize their valuable contributions to San Diego and the global economy."

CONNECT will honor two Hall of Fame recipients a year during two luncheon events, where the inductee will tell his or her story to the audience through a live one-on-one interview with Fred Lewis, host of ITV's "The Heart of San Diego." The first Hall of Fame luncheon will honor QUALCOMM founder, chairman and CEO Dr. Irwin Mark Jacobs on May 26 at the Estancia La Jolla.

Jacobs, who will step down as CEO of QUALCOMM on July 1, led the commercialization of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, regarded as the world's most advanced voice and data wireless communications technology. The Fortune 500 company, which has more than 8,000 employees worldwide and reported revenues of $4.9 billion for fiscal year 2004, was recently listed on The Wall Street Journal's list of "World's Largest Public Companies." In addition to the transition of Jacobs' CEO responsibilities to his son, Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, QUALCOMM will celebrate its 20th anniversary in July.

QUALCOMM's heralded CDMA technology -- which converts speech into digital information that is transmitted over a wireless network and reconverted to speech on the other end -- was first demonstrated to the industry in 1989.

One of QUALCOMM's largest feats was CDMA's entrance into China, where GSM once reigned. After pushing for close to 10 years to get the technology into China, QUALCOMM CDMA licensees finally landed significant contracts in 2002 from China Unicom to build a nationwide system in China.

"Irwin Jacobs is the perfect choice because he exemplifies all the entrepreneurial qualities that have characterized San Diego's extraordinary economic transformation in the last 25 years," said Mary Walshok, Associate Vice Chancellor, Extended Studies and Public Service at UCSD. "His economic, technical and social contributions not only to San Diego but also to the world have been remarkable."

Jacobs, a former UCSD engineering professor, was also responsible for the launch of Linkabit prior to founding QUALCOMM.

"It was a very exciting time. We were able to go from a few part time people to a large company with rapid growth," Jacobs said. "For the people who were there, it took lots of innovation and hard work. I expect to see much more innovation and technology success in San Diego for years to come."

The Hall of Fame will be memorialized at the offices in La Jolla. CONNECT, along with a group of local business leaders, envision a future technology museum in San Diego that will house the CONNECT Hall of Fame, a place where the San Diego community can view artifacts associated with the development of local tech companies and their products, and learn about the history of the region's tech entrepreneurs and their economic and social contributions to San Diego.

CONNECT is a technology business accelerator, founded in 1985 by the University of California, San Diego, dedicated to the creation and sustained growth of innovative, science-based companies whose growth will contribute to the prosperity and global position of the San Diego region.