Leadership Team

Our wireless health team

Changing the game in wireless health

With a team that has the experience and the know-how to make the enormous complexities of a wireless connection simple, Qualcomm Life is defining and connecting the wireless health network.

Rick Valencia Vice President and General Manager

Don Jones Vice President, Global Strategy and Market Development

Dr. Ilene Klein Chief Medical Advisor

Chris Talbot Senior Director, Business Development

Anthony Shimkin Senior Director, Marketing

Clint McClellan Senior Director, Strategic Marketing

Greg LePeter Senior Director, Legal Counsel

Rick Valencia

Vice President and General Manager

Rick is vice president of Qualcomm and the founder and general manager of Qualcomm Life, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated. He is responsible for day-to-day operations as well as leading the company’s product development and technology strategy in the wireless health market. Rick is a true champion of healthcare innovation as evidenced by his efforts at Qualcomm Life and in the broader industry. In addition to running Qualcomm Life, Rick oversees all corporate initiatives that drive innovation in wireless health at Qualcomm, including the strategic partnership with Rock Health and the $100 million Qualcomm Life Fund. As an advisor to Telcare, Inc., an early-stage health care device manufacturer, Rick helped the company launch the first cellular enabled diabetes blood glucose meter. Rick is currently an active member of HIMSS and mHIMSS, both non-profit organizations, which are advancing the best use of information and technology for the betterment of healthcare.

Previously, Rick founded and served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of ProfitLine, a business he built up from a one-man show into a $35 million enterprise, with 200 team members and 70 Fortune 1000 clients. ProfitLine made it to the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies for three consecutive years. Rick not only built a new business, but was also the driving force behind a lucrative new telecommunications industry. Following this experience, Rick brought his technology expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to HCL Expense Management Services Inc., a $50 million subsidiary of HCL Technologies, as Chief Executive Officer. In recognition of his proven ability to succeed in business, Rick was awarded the highly coveted Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

On a personal note, Rick is also a former Chairman and long-time board member of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of San Diego County and a Chairman of the local chapter of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). Rick currently serves as a mentor at the Founder Institute and on the Executive Committee of the San Diego MIT Enterprise Forum where he helps fellow entrepreneurs launch meaningful and enduring technology companies. Rick earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance from California State University Northridge.

Don Jones

Vice President, Global Strategy and Market Development

Don serves as vice president of business development and global strategy and market development for Qualcomm Life. He is responsible for Qualcomm’s development of wireless technologies and platforms in the health, fitness and life sciences markets, and is recognized as a leader in the field. In 2005, he founded and is chairman of the Wireless Life Sciences Alliance (WLSA), a 501c(6) trade organization that works with both the wireless and health industries to enable new business models, new businesses and clinical process improvements in all sectors, including consumer health, fitness, health care services, health care IT, pharmaceutical and medical devices. Don is also a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Digital Health. He is on the boards of the Alliance Healthcare Foundation and the American Telemedicine Association, and was a founding board member of the West Wireless Health Institute. In early 2010, Don was named to the Consumer Products Innovations Board at Sanofi-Aventis Pharmaceuticals. Don holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, a Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Irvine. He holds multiple issued and pending patents in the use of cell phones in incentive reward programs and in asynchronous media communications.

Ilene Klein, M.D., F.A.A.F.P.

Chief Medical Advisor

Ilene serves as the Chief Medical Advisor of Qualcomm Life, and she also serves as the Director of Global Employee Health Services for Qualcomm, Inc. Ilene brings with her more than 30 years of administrative and clinical experience in the public and private health care sectors. As the former Deputy Director of Operations for the New York City Department of Health’s Bureau of Child Health, Ilene helped to create a city-wide network of pediatric primary care homes in underserved communities. After pursuing a career in clinical medicine, she was a partner in a private family practice in Massachusetts. There she served as the first Chief of Service for the new Department of Primary Care at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Ilene came to San Diego in 2007 to open Qualcomm’s first on-site employee health center, where she served as its medical director until June 2011. Ilene is a board certified Family Physician and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, where she was an Edward Kass Fellow at the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. She completed her residency training through the Department of Family Medicine at Brown University. Ilene holds a bachelors and masters degree in Music Therapy from New York University.

Chris Talbot

Senior Director, Business Development

Chris is senior director of business development for Qualcomm Life. In this role, Chris leads the team responsible for the development of the 2net Ecosystem, which consists of medical device companies, health care services businesses, application companies, informatics alliances, wireless operators, technology partners, and physician and health care provider networks. Chris founded the 2net Platform at Qualcomm Labs, leading the team that created the core products and services that set the foundation for the Qualcomm Life business. With 20 years of business development and marketing leadership, Chris has spent his career starting new domestic and international businesses within and outside Qualcomm across various sectors spanning machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless communications, commercial space missions, defense surveillance systems and telehealth systems and services. Prior to Qualcomm, Chris spent 10 years at MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates, helping grow the company into Canada’s leading space and information services company, from annual revenues of $60 million to $1 billion by creating new commercial space missions, leading the company into new market segments, and developing international business in Europe, Asia and the U.S. Chris holds an M.B.A. from the University of British Columbia and a bachelor’s degree in commerce from McGill University.

Anthony Shimkin

Senior Director, Marketing

Anthony is senior director of marketing for Qualcomm Life. With over 20 years of medical and technology experience, Anthony currently leads Qualcomm Life’s global marketing efforts. Most recently, Anthony served as vice president of marketing for Lantronix, a leading machine-to-machine (M2M) technology provider with more than 650 global health care customers. He has held key marketing and innovation leadership roles at Quidel, a diagnostics manufacturer, Cardinal Health, a Fortune 19 health care company, Alaris Medical Systems and Neoforma. Anthony also led the health care equity research team at Wedbush Securities and has consulted for several leading life sciences companies. He holds an M.S. in executive leadership from the University of San Diego, an M.B.A. in marketing and finance, an M.A. in medical sciences and a B.A. in psychology all from Boston University.

Clint McClellan

Senior Director, Strategic Marketing

Clint McClellan is currently the senior director of strategic marketing for Qualcomm Life. Clint’s current responsibilities include establishing opportunities in the Wireless Health market. McClellan joined Qualcomm in December of 1997 as director of Strategic Marketing. Clint brings a wealth of wireless industry analysis experience to Qualcomm. Since joining Qualcomm, he has served in business development roles and established the Global Industry Analyst program and Global Market Intelligence program at Qualcomm. Currently, he is the president and chairman of the board of the Continua Health Alliance. Prior to joining the Qualcomm, Clint served as a senior analyst for Gartner Group/Dataquest's Telecommunications Group in its personal communications wireless program. While he was at Dataquest, Clint served as a technology news analyst for two years on the Good Morning San Jose show at KNTV, an ABC affiliate, where he presented analysis and commentary on daily news events affecting high-technology industries. Previously, he worked as a marketing specialist at Telephone House Nippo in Kobe, Japan and for CH2M Hill Consulting Engineers in Oakland, California. Clint holds a B.S. degree in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Greg LePeter

Senior Director, Legal Counsel

Greg serves as senior director and legal counsel of Qualcomm Life. During the past seven years, Greg served in the Americas as associate general counsel, assistant corporate secretary, ethics & compliance director and privacy officer for ResMed, a global leader in regulated medical devices used to treat respiratory disorders and sleep-disordered breathing. While at ResMed, Greg provided primary legal support for corporate and commercial operations in the region, advised on regulatory matters in product safety, device marketing and information privacy, and served as lead internal counsel in the acquisition of new technologies. Prior to joining ResMed, Greg served as corporate counsel to Premier, Inc., a group purchasing organization that currently serves more than 2,500 US hospitals and 76,000-plus other healthcare sites, where he assisted the healthcare informatics product lines and negotiated contracts for clinical, biomedical device and other capital equipment supplies. Greg holds a bachelor's degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia, a Juris Doctor from Washington University, a Master's in Health Administration from the Washington University School of Medicine and a professional certificate in regulatory affairs in the biologic industry from the University of California, San Diego.

About Qualcomm Life

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