An engineering degree; a masters’ in business
management;and starting off with a very hands-on job - that too in the
U.S. Navy, lasting for six years which is a handsome amount of time for
anyone to get the best learning from the military service; are but some
details of the Lowell McAdam, the current chairman & chief executive
officer of Verizon Communications Inc., the largest wireless company in
the U.S., and a leading provider of wireless, fiber-optic and global
Internet networks and services,which recently bought Yahoo!
Now
for some inspiring and really thought-provoking details about the man
who is one of the architects of today’s global wireless industry (in his
own words), and who has the credit of having built the wireless
industry on three continents!
Early life & Education
Growing
up in upstate New York, McAdam attended Cornell University (on a Naval
ROTC Scholarship) from where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in
Engineering. Then he worked for the military for about half-a-decade for
the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps, and followed it up with a Master’s
Degree in Business Administration from the University of San Diego.
First Job
Like
most engineers, McAdam also loved the fact that he got a really
hands-on job to begin his engineering career with. He started off with
the U.S. Navy’s construction unit called as Seabees. The job entailed
building equipment and other stuff as required by the department, thus
became a licensed professional engineer in 1979. (In fact, one of the
interesting but lesser known facts about his six-year stint with the
Navy, is that he was part of the team that helped build the set for the
Hollywood blockbuster ‘Top-Gun’ that starred Tom Cruise.)
Technological
advancement for the betterment for the society in general (and, of
course, the organizations he served in particular) had been the driving
force for McAdam throughout his career. He was to make really good of
all the education he had acquired, as indeed the precious 6-year stint
with the Seabees of the U.S. Navy – which was as invaluable as it was
necessary for McAdam to grow both as a professional as well as an
engineer.
Into the corporate realm
McAdam
stepped into the world of private industry for the first time through
Pacific Bell in 1983. While it was meant to pursue a full-fledged career
in engineering, he essayed many varied roles including executive
positions such as Area Vice President of Bay Area Marketing and General
Manager of South Bay customer services. In the ten years that he was
with Pacific Bell, which was eventually acquired by AT&T, he helped
the company pioneer wireless communication, around which an
all-powerfuland revolutionary industry was beginning to take
shape.McAdam was one surely one of the architects of this revolution.
The
last decade of the 20th century saw him take up various roles in the
communication industry beginning with Pacific Bell, followed by AirTouch
Cellular, the wireless telephone provider (which was eventually
acquired or became a part of Verizon – a company that McAdam would lead a
decade-and-a-half later), joined in 1993-94 as its Executive Director
of International Applications and Operations (as well as lead technical
partner for cellular ventures in Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, Korea
and Japan).
Precursor to leadership?
Then
McAdam had his first sniff at a leadership role with PrimeCo in the same
year, right after his brief stint with AirTouch.His appointment as
Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President (of PrimeCo)came in
1994 and through the course of the next three years leading up to 1997,
he was responsible for overseeing the build, deployment and successful
launch of the company’s customer service operations.
Then in 1997,
he was further elevated to the post of president and CEO of PrimeCo
Personal Communications, a joint venture owned by Bell Atlantic and
Vodafone AirTouch, where he oversaw the deployment of one of the
industry’s first all-digital networks up until 2000.
The Verizon saga
McAdam
is truly a champion of the wireless communications industry. If one
notices closely, he worked for companies that were shaping to bring
about a revolutionary communication technology that would change forever
our lives.
To be able to understand this, one has to follow some
significant mergers & acquisitions that took place in fag end of the
20th century. Vodafone Group Plc merged with AirTouch Communications,
creating Vodafone AirTouch Plc. In June 1999.
Then in the
September of 1999, Bell Atlantic and Vodafone AirTouch had seized of the
rumblings in the nascent wireless industry and, hence, agreed to merge
their U.S. wireless operations (Bell Atlantic Mobile, AirTouch Cellular)
to form Verizon Wireless.
This gave an opportunity for McAdam to
realign with his pet subject, wireless communication. He joined Verizon
Wireless in 2000 and served as its executive vice president and chief
operating officer until 2007 when he became its chief executive officer,
in which role he served for another three years until 2010.
His
great track record for almost three decades made him the subject of much
appreciation in the wireless and communications industries, which also
include the 10 years at Verizon Wireless where he excelled, as expected.
Thus, it wasn’t any surprise that he was as COO for Verizon
Communications.
The big leap
In just a year
after taking over as the Chief Operating Officer and President of
Verizon Communications, during which he was responsible for wireline and
wireless operations, internal services and the technology management as
indeed the Chief Information Officer functions, he had enough weight
behind him to be elevated to the top post i.e. chief executive officer
(in 2011).
Right after that in January 2012 he was also made the
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Verizon Communications, a capacity
which he is still serving.
Being the CEO of Verizon
Communications is no easy job, especially in the era of the internet
which has led to a transformation of business paradigm unseen or unheard
of before. Competition is gigantic – Google, Apple, Facebook et al have
redefined how people (customers) would want to make the best use of
technology to enable them live a smart life.
This meant that
McAdam also need to align Verizon Communications in line with the
digital transformation happening elsewhere in the world, if not directly
under its nose. Because, if it didn’t that would be a huge opportunity
cost to pay. Well and truly seized of this, McAdam, whose job it is to
herald the company to success in this digital era, decided it was high
time the company diversified and venture into the other aspects of the
technological sphere that were abuzz with a plethora of new things and
concepts. Accordingly, He oversaw Verizon’s acquisition of AOL which
also owned The Huffington Post and Tumblr – two very popular online
players.
This was followed by the very recent much talked about
mega acquisition of one of the pioneers of internet search, Yahoo! (For
a reported $4.8 billion USD). By acquiring its internet business,
Verizon was looking to create a level playing field in the internet
space where Google & Facebook and other are leading the fray. Only
time will tell whether or not these were the right acquisitions but one
thing is sure – McAdam will leave no stone unturned to give Verizon what
it deserve.
Apart from that, McAdam aims to expand Verizon’s
horizons – which believes in the power of technology to solve the
world's biggest challenges,by leadingits push into growth markets in the
Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile entertainment realms.The push is
not limited to only competing with the technology leaders. It has
recently upped the ante withsome recent bids to acquire very diverse
companies.