Neil Jablon, PhD

Neil is an executive leader for emerging, high-growth product development at global scale. His primary interest today is in AI/ML, for which he has driven numerous initiatives during his career.

He was at Qualcomm from 2006-2023, where he focused on the Internet of Things (IoT), hardware and software ecosystems, supply chain management, and international business development. As Senior Director, Product Management and Head of Ecosystem, he developed the foundational strategy, then led a China-based team which implemented and managed an Approved Vendor List for Android smartphone, IoT, and automobile third-party hardware components. Over 1,000 such components were verified to Qualcomm’s Reference Designs. This ecosystem was a pillar of growing Qualcomm’s China smartphone business to multi-billion $ annual revenues. Subsequently, Neil built a global program across business units (IoT, Auto, wearables, etc.) to grow revenue – generated by a multi-billion $ global strategic partner – for Qualcomm’s entire AI/ML-based smart device chipset sales pipeline. Overall, this activity grew Qualcomm’s chipset estimated lifetime revenue due to the strategic partner by 14x in 3½ years (from low $100 millions to single-digit billion $). Neil also identified and resolved CXO-level strategic & operational priorities (primarily AI/ML-related) and directed execution of novel developer experience KPIs (including AI/ML), the latter to open a new market segment by improving chipset and software developer friendliness.

Neil’s previous career highlights included IBM Global Services (Beijing, China), Vodafone Group (last assignment in Tokyo, Japan), AirTouch Communications, and AT&T Bell Laboratories.

Neil received his BE in electrical engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (now Stony Brook University), where he was co-valedictorian. He earned his MSEE and PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University, where he was a Hertz Fellow and Tau Beta Pi Fellow. His PhD thesis was in “smart antennas,” based on novel AI/ML algorithms. (Principal Advisor: Bernard Widrow. Associate Advisor: Arogyaswami Paulraj.) At Stanford, he concurrently studied Mandarin Chinese, which he became fluent in (“full professional proficiency”). Neil later studied Japanese, achieving intermediate-to-advanced proficiency. Neil also holds an MBA in general management from the UCLA Anderson School. Based on his Stanford PhD thesis and work at AT&T Bell Laboratories, he published 5 single-author papers on AI/ML (smart antennas, modem equalization) in the IEEE Transactions (refereed journal). Neil is an IEEE Senior Member, as well as a Yoga Alliance certified yoga instructor (RYT-200).