Philadelphia Inquirer article
FROM RAGING BULL:
phillynews.com
CEO job vacant since '97 is filled Mark Gercenstein, a former Motorola executive
was tapped by InterDigital Communications.
By Patricia Horn
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
After several years of long vacancies and a revolving door in its chief executive slot,
InterDigital Communications Corp. believes it got it right this time.
Yesterday, the wireless technology company in King of Prussia named a former
executive of Motorola Corp. and Iridium L.L.C., Mark Gercenstein, as its chief
executive officer, filling a vacancy it has had since 1997.
Gercenstein arrives at a time of intense interest in wireless technologies, and after a
tumultuous decade for the small technology company.
InterDigital chose Gercenstein because the company wanted "someone with good
experience in the telecommunications industry, preferably with a strong background
in wireless," Charles Tilden, executive vice president of communications and
strategic planning, said. The company also sought someone with a "track record of
success who knows how to start and grow businesses."
Although Gercenstein spent the last eight months working in Motorola's Fixed
Wireless Broadband Group in Arizona, he had previously spent 10 years working for
or developing Iridium L.L.C., the global satellite-telephone company that ultimately
filed for bankruptcy. Gercenstein is originally from Poland and speaks fluent Russian
and Polish.
He said he chose InterDigital for its small-company environment and its position in
the converging Internet and wireless industries. When he rejoined Motorola after
several years at Iridium, Gercenstein said, he realized that a large company, "with
certain bureaucracy in place, wasn't me."
He also likes that InterDigital is a survivor.
The company's "history has been somewhat up and down, but most of them [the
staff] stayed through and managed to pull it out and get the company on the right
track," he said. "The staying power alone I found very impressive."
His experience at Iridium taught him that companies need open management,
people who can hear the bad news. Companies also need open relationships with
major suppliers, he said.
His mission at InterDigital includes cultivating better relationships with Wall Street -
no analysts currently cover the company - as well as building the company and
adding management and technical depth.
Over the past three years, InterDigital has shifted its focus from designing,
manufacturing and selling complete fixed-wireless phone systems to developing
patented technologies for cell phones and other wireless products.
Since losing a critical patent case to Motorola in 1995, InterDigital has aggressively
documented its patents to bulk up earnings from licensing its technologies. Last
year, it signed a long-term, $70 million agreement with Nokia Telecommunications
of Finland to develop wireless technologies.
Like other tech stocks, InterDigital's share price has been volatile. The stock closed
yesterday at $13, down $1.833. It briefly hit a 52-week high of $82 last December on
excitement over wireless stocks, a huge leap from its price of about $5.50 in
mid-November.
Since 1992, InterDigital has had a revolving door in its chief executive spot. Donald
Schilling became CEO in April 1994 and resigned in November 1994. Board
chairman William J. Burns then became chief executive, but he resigned in April
1996 and later was fined $101,191 by the Securities and Exchange Commission for
giving insider information to a friend. Gregory Webb, who succeeded Burns, was
fired in May 1997, after seven months on the job.
Since then, the post has been vacant, although the company has had a number of
presidents.
"It is good that they've put someone in place. It has needed some direction," said
Sidney D. Rosenblatt, a former chief financial officer at InterDigital and now chief
financial officer at Universal Display Corp. in Ewing, N.J.
"The company has great technology and a lot of potential," said Rosenblatt, who
still owns shares in the company he left in 1990. "I hope this allows them to become
more successful than they have [been] in the past." |
