Mark Pecen

Mark Pecen serves as CEO of Approach Infinity, Inc., providing advisory services to firms requiring technology due diligence and management consulting in the areas of wireless communication and emerging technologies, rapidly growing technology companies and their venture capital funding partners. The firm comprises a network of senior executives and experts in the management of technology, innovation, research and development, marketing, sales, global standards, patents, technology entrepreneurship, and individuals with specific technical disciplines such as information theory, radio frequency systems, wireless system protocols, cryptography and others.

Pecen retired as Sr. Vice President, Research and Advanced Technology and technology advisor to the CEO of BlackBerry, maker of wireless smart phones. He was responsible for the creation and management of BlackBerry’s Advanced Technology Research Centre and a significant portion of BlackBerry’s wireless patent portfolio. A past Distinguished Innovator and member of the Science Advisory Board at Motorola, Pecen also managed consultation work for clients in North America and Europe.

Pecen invented a number of technologies that have later been adopted in global standards, including the Global System for Mobile Telecommunication (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA+), Long-Term Evolution (LTE) for 4G wireless and others.

Pecen serves as an advisor to several industry and academic organizations, and is a regular advisor to the Canadian government on wireless communication and research. He holds board positions on University of Waterloo Institute for Quantum Computing, École Polytechnique, Wilfrid Laurier University School of Business, Quantum Works academic network for quantum information research, Canadian Digital Media Network, the Communication Research Centre (CRC) of Industry Canada and others.

A veteran of the wireless industry, he is an author and editor of a number of text books in the area of wireless technology and holds more than 100 fundamental patents in areas of wireless communication, networking and computing, and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.