Business POV

NOTE: Since we filmed this segment, it has come to our attention that Jim O'Connor is no longer with Motorola.

Here Jim O'Connor, corporate VP of technology innovation and a guiding hand behind the ESA program at Moto, explains how he works closely with the company's technologists to put high-impact and commercially viable research work on the fast track.

The ESA helps drive Seamless Mobility forward by identifying research work that has the potential to make an immediate impact on the industry and Motorola’s business growth. Every day, O'Connor and his team sit down to not only sort through an enormous amount of research for promising developmental projects, but also to manage their growth.

At Motorola, Jim was also managing director and cofounder of Motorola Ventures, where he actively reviewed and managed Motorola’s investments in global minority equity opportunities.

Mr. O'Connor spoke to us at the Chicagoland Innovation Summit on October 25 at Navy Pier.

About Jim O'Connor:

Jim O'Connor is Corporate Vice President of Technology Acceleration at Motorola, Inc. In this role, Jim's operational responsibilities include working closely with a global team of 5,000 technologists, prioritizing technology programs, creating value from intellectual property, guiding creative research from innovation through early-stage commercialization, and influencing standards and technical roadmaps. Jim is responsible for evaluating the technical and commercial merit of a wide variety of technologies and go-to-market strategies and championing the top business plans through the Early Stage Accelerator Innovation program. Through processes he established to harness technical, business and entrepreneurial IQ to nurture disruptive and breakthrough innovation, Motorola has accelerated innovation into the market; reducing time from labs to market by half, while realizing a ten fold increase in the flow of ideas from research into products. He has also established advanced technology innovation teams in Europe, China, India, Israel, Latin America, and Africa. In addition, his Standards team was awarded the IEEE Corporate Award for outstanding achievement in 2006.

Previous to this role, Jim was co-founder and Managing Director of Motorola Ventures, the corporate venture capital investment arm of Motorola, Inc. Jim oversaw the creation of investment operations in Silicon Valley, Europe, Israel and China and completed over 100 venture transactions.

Jim co-founded Motorola Ventures in September 1999 following a year of service in the US Government as a White House Fellow appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton. He was chosen by and served his assignment through Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. During his time at the Treasury Department, he was responsible for coordinating strategies on domestic financial policy, hedge funds, electronic commerce and community development policy. Prior to his public service, Jim worked as a Management Consultant with the global management consultancy A.T. Kearney out of Chicago where he focused on strategic and operational issues with Fortune 100 companies. He also served for a year as a volunteer teacher in South Africa. Jim received his BA and JD from Georgetown University where he lettered in crew and football and was named an East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) All-Star and GTE Academic All-American. He received his MBA from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management where he received the Dean?s Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Jim was named a Henry Crown Leadership Fellow by the Aspen Institute in 2004, a United States / Japan Leadership fellow in 2000 and a Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow in 2000. He remains active in the local Chicago community as the co-Chair the Chicago Entrepreneurial Center (CEC), which is a national model for public-private partnerships that are established to assist entrepreneurs. In this capacity, Jim created the "Future Founders" program designed to connect inner-city high school students with leading business leaders to foster entrepreneurialism in schools. Jim is a Board Member of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. He is a Trustee on the Board of the Field Museum of National History. Jim is also the founder of Kellogg Corps, a non-profit entrepreneurial program at the Northwestern J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, whose mission is to bring management expertise to non-profit organizations in developing countries. Jim currently serves as Chairman Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN) run by the Center for Research in Innovation and Technology at Kellogg Business School.

Jim serves as an Advisory Board Member of the NanoBusiness Alliance, the preeminent nanotechnology public policy organization in the United States. He founded the Field Associates, the Field Museum's Young Professional Board, as well as the Lyric Opera Auxiliary Board, the Lyric Opera's Young Professional Board. He also founded the Young Leaders Society (YLS) of the United Way Metropolitan Chicago (UWMC). Jim also serves on the Board for the Chicago Urban League, the Children's Home & Aid Society (CHASI), Chicago Communities in Schools Program (CCIS), the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL), as well as the Big Shoulders Board for the Archdiocese of Chicago's inner-city school fund. Jim was awarded the Motorola CEO Award for Volunteerism in 2002 and the Motorola CEO Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2004. In addition, Jim's team won the Motorola Global Inclusion & Diversity Award in 2006. Jim is a member of the American Bar Association (ABA), The Economic Club of Chicago (ECC) and The Executives' Club of Chicago (EC). In 2005, Jim was named to Crain's Chicago Business "40 UNDER 40" list. In 2006, Jim was named to the American Ventures Magazine (AVM) "40 UNDER 40" list.