Cristiano Amon (born ) is a Brazilian electrical engineer and businessman. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) and president of

Qualcomm Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless techn ...

, a semiconductor research and development company. He earned a degree in electrical engineering. He began his career working on wireless technology for early

cell phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio ...

networks. He oversaw Qualcomm's 4G and 5G technology, used in most Android devices. He also played a role in Qualcomm's diversification beyond the cell phone industry and negotiated for more processors from suppliers during shortages caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Member of Technology CEO Council. Member of US-China Business Council He is a member of the President's Export Council.

Early life and education

Amon was born in Brazil in He grew up in

Campinas Campinas (, ''Plains'' or ''Meadows'') is a Brazilian Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in São Paulo (state), São Paulo State, part of the country's Southeast Region, Brazil, Southeast Region. According to the 2020 estimate, the city's popul ...

state of São Paulo State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

, Brazil. His father was an electrical engineer. Son Cristiano chose to study electrical engineering at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas as well. Early on, he developed an interest in radio communications. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at that university in 1992. At the time, the first generation of cellular radio ( 1G) was in use.

Career

Early career

Amon started his career working for telecommunications companies during the early development of cell phone networks. His first position out of college was with

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

's Brazilian arm. For that position, he moved to Tokyo, Japan, and frequently travelled to

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, California, to meet with Qualcomm. In 1996, Amon was hired by Qualcomm to help the company expand in Latin America. A few years later, Amon left Qualcomm. He worked for

Ericsson (), commonly known as Ericsson (), is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Ericsson has been a major contributor to the development of the telecommunications industry and is one ...

for a short while, then joined VeloCom, an investment firm focused on the telecommunications industry. While there, he was assigned to work at Vésper, a struggling telecom company that was nearing bankruptcy. Amon worked for the Brazilian telecom company as its chief technology officer and chief operating officer until it was profitable. Then, Vésper was sold to competitor Embratel in 2003.

Qualcomm

In 2004, he joined Qualcomm again. Alan H. Fleischmann
''Cristiano Amon.''
Leadership Matters, 23 August 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022. He received several promotions over the years, working as SVP of product management, EVP of Qualcomm Technologies, and President of Qualcomm's

CDMA Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communicatio ...

division. Amon was an important figure in the development of Qualcomm's 4G technology and the growth of Qualcomm's Snapdragon semiconductors. He also expanded Qualcomm's sales with smartphone manufacturers in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Amon oversaw Qualcomm's expansion outside of cell phones into semiconductors used in cars, computers, 5G infrastructure, robots, industrial applications,

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

devices, and other electronic devices. During Steven Mollenkopf's tenure as CEO of Qualcomm, Amon was responsible for Qualcomm's 5G strategy. He was responsible for improvements in Qualcomm's radio processors that are partially responsible for Qualcomm's market-share in 5G devices. Amon was appointed President of Qualcomm in 2018 by then-CEO Mollenkopf. He led a $1.4 billion acquisition of a company founded by former Apple executives called Nuvia and re-focused it on CPUs for consumer products, instead of data centers.

CEO

In June 2021, he was promoted to the top position as CEO of the entire company.''Leadership: Cristiano Amon.''
qualcomm.com. Retrieved 31 January 2022 This was consistent with Qualcomm's history of appointing engineers to the CEO position. His predecessors were Irwin M. Jacobs (co-founder), Paul E. Jacobs and Steven Mollenkopf. A first challenge for him in his new position was to alleviate the shortage of

integrated circuits An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

for the customers of Qualcomm.Patrick McGee
''Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon: You have to bet the company''.
Financial Times (ft.com), 23 January 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022 Shortly after Amon was appointed to the CEO position, the

caused supply shortages for the processors used in Qualcomm's chips. Amon secured a competitive advantage for Qualcomm by successfully negotiating for more processors than competitors were able to get from suppliers. Amon indicated his goals to expand in the fields around

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

, virtual reality and automotive technology. In 2023, Amon's total compensation from Qualcomm was $23.5 million, representing a CEO-to-median worker pay ratio of 223-to-1.

Affiliations

2022: Chairman, Semiconductor Industry Association.''Cristiano Amon Elected Chair of Semiconductor Industry Association.''
marketscreener.com, 18. November 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2022

Honours

* Honorary doctorate from his alma mater UNICAMP (Universidade Estadual de Campinas), São Paulo.Honorary Degree
from University Of Campinas, UNICAMP, in November 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amon, Cristiano 1970s births Living people Qualcomm people Businesspeople from San Diego State University of Campinas alumni 21st-century Brazilian engineers American electronics engineers Brazilian chief executives