Sierra Wireless board of directors appoints Kent Thexton as president & CEO and Robin Abrams as chair

Kent Thexton of Sierra Wireless

Sierra Wireless, the provider of fully integrated device-to-cloud solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT), announced that Kent Thexton has been appointed to the position of president & chief executive officer of the company. Mr. Thexton has been serving as interim president & CEO since May 31st, 2018 and will assume the permanent role on November 1, 2018.

Mr. Thexton brings a wealth of knowledge and leadership experience in the cellular wireless and IoT industries as well as venture capital technology investing. He held prominent roles as founding chief marketing officer and board member of O2 plc in the U.K. (now part of Telefonica); the chief operating officer of Rogers Cantel in Canada; and he co-founded a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) business in the U.S. Mr. Thexton has spent the past five years in Canada as managing partner at OMERS Ventures and co-founder and general partner at ScaleUp Ventures.

On accepting his role as president & CEO, Mr. Thexton commented: “I am passionate about Sierra Wireless’s global leadership opportunity and honored to lead the company on a permanent basis. For the past four months, in my interim role, I experienced the strong position Sierra Wireless has in the global market and the major opportunity ahead with its strengthening service and solutions business. With dynamic evolutions in the IoT market, I am certain that a clear, aggressive strategy for the company is critical in directing our resources towards key growth opportunities.”

In addition, Robin Abrams, who has served on the company’s board since 2010, has been appointed by the board of directors to be the new chair replacing Mr. Thexton who joined the board in March 2005 and has served as chair since February 2016. Mr. Thexton will continue to serve as a director on the company’s board.

In her new role, Ms. Abrams brings more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry having held key management positions for some of the world’s most high-profile technology companies, including Apple, VeriFone, and Palm Computing. Ms. Abrams is currently an active director on three other boards of U.S. based technology companies.

“I am pleased to accept the role of chair of the board,” said Ms. Abrams. “Sierra Wireless is in an enviable market position, and I firmly believe we have the right strategy and leadership in place to realise the company’s potential.”

The appointment of both Mr. Thexton and Ms. Abrams comes as Sierra Wireless is accelerating its device-to-cloud strategy, including:

  • leveraging its global leadership in IoT modules and gateways into fully integrated IoT solutions,
  • embracing the latest generation of cellular Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies,
  • deploying eSIMs to provide customers with a simple, scalable and flexible IoT solutions, and
  • driving a 5G technology roadmap that accelerates the company’s IoT leadership.

Mr. Thexton will be concluding his role as General Partner at ScaleUp Ventures prior to his November 1st start date as president & CEO of Sierra Wireless.

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