LAS VEGAS, NV—Sept. 6, 2016–Tuesday night the Wireless Hall of Fame awards celebrated the achievements of six outstanding executives in the wireless communications industry. Hosted by the non-profit Wireless History Foundation at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas, the event was attended by 300 industry supporters from across the country. The awards presentation shared video highlights of their respective achievements and the honorees were introduced by colleagues instrumental in their careers. Joining the 48 current members of the Wireless Hall of Fame in 2016 are:
- Industry Associate Category – FJ Pollak (posthumously) of TracFone, introduced by Marcelo Claure, CEO of Sprint and accepting the award was FJ’s wife Abigail Pollak
- Technology Category – Joel Engel, Richard Frenkiel and Philip Porter (posthumously), all formerly of Bell Laboratories, introduced by Hall of Fame member Dale Hatfield of the University of Colorado Boulder and accepting on Phil Porter’s behalf were his children Flip Porter and Shelby Taylor
- Pioneer Category – Richard Sherwin of Spot On Networks, introduced by Hall of Fame member Wayne Perry, CEO of Shotgun Investments
- Service Provider category – Ralph de la Vega of AT&T, introduced by Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO of AT&T
After the dinner and awards presentations, the evening concluded with a cocktail hour to toast the honorees and all the sponsors that made the event possible. “These honorees, by their diverse technology development and business activities, advanced the progression of one of the most powerful tools impacting the way people all across the world communicate and collaborate,” said WHF Board member Rob Mechaley, CEO of Mobilesphere Holdings LLC, and Chairman of the 2016 selection committee.
The 2016 Wireless Hall of Fame event sponsors are:
- Bandwidth Level: AT&T, Eagle River, and Verizon
- Spectrum Level: Assurant Solutions, CTIA, NextNav, Nokia, Qualcomm, and Trilogy Partnership
- Frequencies Level: Asurion, BlackBerry, BlueWater Wireless, Dyna LLC, Ericsson, Mosaik Solutions, Samsung, Spot On Networks, Sprint, Syniverse, T-Mobile, TracFone, Vertical Bridge, Vodafone Americas Foundation, Wilkinson Barker & Knauer LLP, ZTE USA
- Connections Level: Jay Whitehurst and Sameer Vuyyuru of Comtech Telecommunications Corp., Crown Castle, Dale Hatfield, Andrea and Stephanie Joel, Mobilitie, MVP Capital, National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE), Wireless Infrastructure Association, Lawrence Movshin and Brian Tramont of Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
For additional information or to participate as a sponsor of the September 2017 awards dinner in San Francisco, please contact Liz Maxfield at liz (at) wirelesshistoryfoundation dotorg.