Here’s some interesting news to start off your Tuesday morning. It appears that Qualcomm’s Executive Vice President of their Global Market Development team, Peggy Johnson, has reportedly left Qualcomm for a position at Microsoft. Peggy has been with Qualcomm for 24 years, so she’s definitely a veteran. Johnson is Qualcomm’s highest ranking female in the leadership team, which is a big deal, especially in tech. She is also in charge of Qualcomm Labs, along with the global marketing team. Qualcomm Labs is wholly owned by Qualcomm. This is where new technologies are tested and developed before implemented into their newer chipsets or processors.
Johnson led the development of Qualcomm’s BREW platform during her time with the company. BREW was the first large-scale mobile app environment, and was also the beginning of mobile apps which let developers monetize their apps as well. Additionally, she also was responsible for helping roll out 3G connectivity in developing countries like India. Her background at Qualcomm included sales, business development, and software engineering. She also serves on a number of advisory boards. Including representing the United States on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council.
So far there’s nothing official from Microsoft or Qualcomm about Peggy Johnson leaving Qualcomm for Microsoft. But if this is indeed true, it looks like Qualcomm has some pretty big shoes to fill with Johnson out of the company. Hopefully we’ll hear something soon though. Given her background, Johnson will likely be on the Microsoft Senior Leadership team. Which lately, SAtya Nadella, has been grooming that team to his liking, since taking over as CEO for Steve Ballmer. Hopefully we’ll get official announcement from Microsoft rather soon about this. How many of you are surprised to see a high-ranking Qualcomm exec leave the company and head over to Microsoft? Let us know in the comments below.