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Meet Martin 'Marty' Cooper, father of the cellular phone. Inspired by watching Captain Kirk talking into his communicator, Cooper was the ‘Thought Leader’ who fired the wireless revolution where you call a person and not a place. Marty grew up in Chicago and earned a degree in electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. After four years in the navy Marty was hired by Motorola in 1954, and began work developing portable products including the first handheld police radio in 1967. Cooper then led Motorola's cellular R&D team and is the inventor named of record for US patent 3906166 "Radio telephone system" filed on October 17, 1973. He is considered the inventor of the first portable handset and the first person to make a call on a portable cell phone on April 3, 1973, to the bewilderment of passers-by in a New York City street.

Mr. Cooper co-founded Cellular Business Systems, Inc. and led it to dominate the cellular billing industry with a 75 percent market share before selling it to Cincinnati Bell. He has been granted eight patents in the communications field. In 1992, he had co-founded ArrayComm, Inc. and has grown the company into the world leader in smart antenna technology with 400 patents issued or pending worldwide. Today, Martin Cooper, an energetic 79 year old is trying to change the way we use the Internet. "Cellular was the forerunner to true wireless communications," he said. "And just as people got used to taking phones with them everywhere, the way people use the Internet is ultimately going to be wireless. With our technology, you will be able to open your notebook anywhere and log on to the Internet at a very high speed with relatively low cost. "But when people get used to logging on anywhere, well, that's going to be a revolution." It is a revolution in which Martin Cooper wants to play an important role.

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