Qualcomm Appoints Mark Fields, Kornelis Smit to its Board of Directors

Qualcomm Incorporated announced the appointment of two independent directors to its Board of Directors: Mark Fields, former president and CEO of Ford Motor Company, and Kornelis (Neil) Smit, vice chairman of Comcast Corporation.
 
These new directors bring experience in senior leadership and board-level positions, as well as broad knowledge and relevant expertise that will be valuable to the company as it works to execute against its strategic plan to drive growth in mobile and capitalize on the opportunity of mobile intersecting a broader set of industries, such as automotive, the Internet of Things, networking and mobile compute.
 
“Mark and Neil are well-respected in their fields and bring a wealth of experience and critical business knowledge of different industries that are pertinent to Qualcomm,” said Jeffrey W. Henderson, chairman of the Board, Qualcomm Incorporated.
 
Fields served as president and CEO of Ford Motor Company from 2014 to 2017, and prior to this held the COO role from 2012 to 2014. As CEO and COO at Ford, he was responsible for overseeing Ford’s fastest global manufacturing expansion in 50 years, managing the most aggressive global product introduction schedule in the company’s history and delivering record profitability. Fields joined Ford in 1989 and progressed through a number of leadership positions in the US, South America, Asia and Europe.
 
Smit serves as a vice chairman of Comcast Corporation, working with Comcast leaders to develop future technology-oriented business opportunities. Previously, Smit served as president of Comcast Cable from 2010 to 2011, and then president and CEO of Comcast Cable from 2011 to 2017.
 
Prior to this, Smit was at Charter Communications, where he served as president and CEO and a director from 2005 to 2010. Prior to joining Charter, Smit was president of Time Warner’s America Online Access business, where he oversaw Internet access services, including America Online (AOL), CompuServe and Netscape ISPs. Smit was a regional president with Nabisco and held several management positions at Pillsbury. For five and a half years, he served on active duty with the Navy SEAL Teams and retired from the service as a lieutenant commander.