Norm Fjeldheim, 2009 Honoree
- Title
- Senior vice president, CIO
- Employer
- Qualcomm Inc.
- Location
- San Diego
- First job:
- "Working on a construction site cleaning, hauling materials and building."
- Most valuable career advice:
- "Don't worry about your reputation. Focus on your integrity and your character, and your reputation will take care of itself."
- Favorite vice:
- "I enjoy doing graphic design work as a hobby. Probably too much, according to my wife."
- What do you love about IT?
- "I enjoy change, and IT is all about change: new technologies, new projects and new things to do. I like using technology to improve the way people work and live."
- People you'd invite to your dream dinner party:
- "Steve Jobs, Dr. John Reed (geneticist), Warren Buffett and Barack Obama. It would be fun to debate the future of technology and the future of this country and the world."
- What's in your MP3 player?
- AFI, Michelle Branch, Santana, Green Day, 3 Doors Down, Coldplay and The Fray
- Twenty years ago, I was...
- "A newlywed systems analyst at a small start-up named Qualcomm."
- In high school, I should have been voted "Most Likely to..."
- "Make friends."
- Favorite book:
- "Any Tom Clancy book."
- Favorite TV show:
- 24
- What about you would surprise the people you work with?
- "I originally studied to be an architect and worked as a carpenter to put myself through college."
- Leadership philosophy in a nutshell:
- "My leadership style is very straightforward. I try to empower and enable my staff and to communicate, communicate, communicate. I believe in setting strategy in conjunction with my customers, and then turning people loose to execute the strategy."