William J. Weisz

Biography

William J. Weisz, was born on January 8, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois. He received the B.S.E.E. degree from the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology.

After serving in the U.S. Navy as an electronic technician, he began his career at Motorola as a junior development engineer in 1948.

Among his first assignments was work on early versions of the company's Handie-Talkie® FM Radiophone. He was in charge of design work for Motorola's first and subsequent lines of radio pagers. He was named Manager of the Portable Communications Product line in 1954. In 1956, he became Chief Engineer for all mobile and portable communications products and manager of these product lines in 1958. He has authored numerous papers and received patents related to two-way radio communications.

Mr. Weisz was elected a Motorola vice president in 1961 and named General Manager of the Communications Division in 1965. In 1968, he was elected to the Board of Directors. The following year he became Executive Vice President and Assistant Chief Operating Officer. He was elected President in 1970, and, in 1972, became Chief Operating Officer. While continuing as Chief Operating Officer, he was elected Vice Chairman of the Board in 1980. He became Chief Executive Officer in 1986 and was designated an Officer of the Board Jan. 1, 1988. In December 1989, Bill Weisz retired from Motorola, but continued as Vice Chairman. In December 1993, he was elected Chairman of the Board. In 1997, pursuant to corporate governance rules, he retired as Chairman.

In 1981, he was presented with the Electronic Industries Association's (EIA) highest personal recognition, the Medal of Honor. He has held a number of posts with EIA, including: chairman of technical committee TR8 on land mobile services; chairman of the land mobile section, chairman of the communications and industrial electronics division; and chairman of EIA's Board of Governors.

Mr. Weisz served on the Federal Communications Commission Land Mobile Advisory Committee and the Land Mobile Communications Council. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on on Advanced Technology Competition between the Industrialized Allies. He served on the Defense Policy Advisory Committee on Trade (DPACT) to the U. S. Secretary of Defense and the U.S. Trade Representative.

In the IEEE, he served as chairman of the IEEE Professional Group on Vehicular Communication. Bill Weisz was a Fellow of both the IEEE and The Radio Club of America. The latter awarded him the Sarnoff Citation in 1987. In 1970, he received the National Electronics Conference Award of Merit.

He was a life member of the board of trustees of the MIT Corporation, where he served on the investment committee, was a past chairman of the visiting committee for electrical engineering and computer sciences, and was a member of the visiting committee for the Sloan School of Management, and chairman of the nuclear engineering department visiting committee. In 1976, he received the MIT Corporate Leadership Award and an honorary doctorate of business administration from St. Ambrose College, Davenport, Iowa.

The Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge awarded Bill Weisz an honor certificate in 1974 for his efforts on behalf of the private enterprise system.