Wireless Veterans Shikhar Ghosh and Dr. Kaveh Pahlavan Join Skyhook Wireless
New Chairman and Chief Technical Advisor Bring Years of Internet Startup Experience and Wireless Research to Growing Entity
NEEDHAM, MA - May 23, 2005 - Skyhook Wireless, provider of the industry's first Wi-Fi based metro-area positioning system, today announced the appointment of Shikhar Ghosh as Chairman of the Board and Dr. Kaveh Pahlavan as Chief Technical Advisor.
Shikhar Ghosh is a well-known and highly-regarded entrepreneur in the wireless and Internet markets. Named one of country's "Best Entrepreneurs" by BusinessWeek in 1996 and one of the "Internet Entrepreneurs and Masters of the New Universe" in 1998 by Forbes magazine, Ghosh helped drive the Internet revolution as founder and chairman of Open Market. Prior to founding Open Market in 1994, Ghosh was the CEO of Appex Corporation, the country's first wireless roaming clearinghouse. Most recently, Ghosh was the founder of iBelong, a community of interest service provider.
"Skyhook Wireless is ideally positioned to help accelerate the growth of location based services," said Ghosh. "By taking advantage of hardware that already exists in very large numbers, Skyhook brings location capabilities to the masses." As Chairman, Ghosh will direct Skyhook Wireless' marketing and financing strategies while continuing in his role as industry thought-leader and spokesperson.
Dr. Kaveh Pahlavan is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), professor of Computer Science (CS), and director of the Center for Wireless Information Network Studies, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA. His primary area of research today is location aware broadband wireless networks. His previous research addressed modulation, coding and adaptive signal processing for digital communication over radio channels. He is the principal author of Wireless Information Networks, John Wiley and Sons, 1995 and Principles of Wireless Networks - A Unified Approach, Prentice Hall, 2002. He is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal on Wireless Information Networks and executive director of the Wireless LAN Research Lab at WPI. For his contributions to wireless networks, he was named the Westin Hadden Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at WPI during 1993-1996, elected a fellow of the IEEE in 1996 and was the first non-native of Finland to receive the Nokia fellowship in 1999. Because of his inspiring visionary publications and his international conference activities encouraging the growth of the wireless LAN industry, he is referred to as one of the Founding Fathers of Wi-Fi.
"With more than 20 years of research in the area of wireless networks and more than 10 years of research in geolocation studies, I am very intrigued about this new endeavor and I am excited to be a part of Skyhook," commented Pahlavan. "I find the concept of extending Wi-Fi location models to wide area applications a compelling new opportunity for location-based services." As Chief Technical Advisor, Pahlavan will guide the Skyhook Research Group as it deploys and advances the new Wi-Fi Positioning System.
The endorsement and assistance from two of the world's foremost strategic and operational practitioners in the wireless and Internet industries will help Skyhook Wireless achieve our goals of propelling the adoption of location-based services on any Wi-Fi enabled device," said Ted Morgan, founder and CEO, Skyhook Wireless. "Our ability to attract such impressive supporters is a testament to our vision and ability to deliver a ubiquitous solution to the market."
About Skyhook Wireless
Founded in 2003, Skyhook Wireless has pioneered the development of the first-ever metro-area positioning system that leverages Wi-Fi rather than satellites or cell towers to deliver precise location data supporting the growing market for location-based services. The Skyhook Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) requires no new hardware, works indoors and outdoors, provides an instant location and is more accurate than current technologies in congested downtown areas. Skyhook Wireless is headquartered in Needham, MA and is privately held. For more information on the company and its Wi-Fi positioning system, visit www.skyhookwireless.com, send email to send email to info@skyhookwireless.com or call 781.577.2815.
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