Oral-History:Norman Toms

About the Interviewee

Norman Toms grew up in Dublin, Ireland where he stayed to earn a bachelor's degree in natural sciences and physics. He moved to the UK and graduated from Cambridge with a Ph.D. in Physics and worked for Plessey before moving to Canada in 1975. He worked for Bell Northern Research, Scientific Atlanta (in the USA) and the Mobile Data Division of Motorola Inc. back in Canada. Following the Motorola acquisition Normal with several colleagues joined MPR Teltech Ltd developing the cellular digital packet data (CDPD) wireless communications standard. Following another acquisition in 1992 by PMC Sierra, he secured financing and founding Sierra Wireless, Inc. where he served as the Chief Executive Officer. In 1998, Norman received a lifetime achievement award by the Wireless Data Forum and retired in 2004.

About the Interview

Norman Toms: An interview conducted by Chris Scholefield, July 4, 2007.

Copyright Statement

The content of this oral history, including photographs, audio and audiovisual clips, and biographical information, and are intended for non-commercial educational and personal use only. Copyright restrictions apply. Commercial publication, redistribution, or use of the content is not permitted.

Anyone wishing to use the text, image, or audio or audiovisual files associated with this oral history transcript for publication, commercial use, or any other use not expressly permitted, must contact the Historian.

It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows:

[Interviewee Name], interviewed by [Interviewer Name], [Interview Date].

Audio

Audio File

MP3 Audio
(NormanToms_Inteview.mp3)

Interview

INTERVIEWEE: Norman Toms
INTERVIEWER: Chris Scholefield
DATE: July 4, 2007
PLACE: Office of WinBC, Vancouver, BC, Canada