M. Kenneth Oshman

Co-founder of ROLM Corporation, a telecommunications equipment company, Oshman helped establish the firm in 1969 and served as its CEO, President, and director until its merger with IBM in 1984.

Having grown up in Rosenberg, Texas, Oshman attended Rice University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude receiving a BA and BS in Engineering. In 1962, he married his high school sweetheart, Barbara Daily. They moved to the Bay Area in 1963, where he was a member of the technical staff at Sylvania and was involved in the development of nonlinear optical techniques and systems. While at Sylvania, he attended Stanford University, where he received his MA and PhD in 1966.

He, along with three associates, founded ROLM Corporation, a telecommunications equipment company, in 1969. Oshman served as CEO, President, and a director at ROLM from its founding until its merger with IBM in 1984. Following the merger, he became a Vice President of IBM and a member of its Corporate Management Board, remaining in that role until 1986.

He became the Executive Chairman of Echelon Corporation in San Jose in 1989 and served as CEO of Echelon from 1988 to 2009 and President from 1988 to 2001. Echelon was a pioneer in energy control networking for smart electric grids, smart buildings, and smart devices. Oshman served as a board member of the Rice University Board of Governors and Just Answer. He was a past President of the Board of Stanford Alumni Association and a past member of the Advisory Council of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, of Stanford Associates, and the Board of Directors of the Community Foundation of Santa Clara County.

He was an American Electronics Association director for five years, serving as chairman in 1977, a former director and chairman of the Santa Clara County Manufacturing Group, and a member of President Reagan's Economic Policy Planning Committee and the Committee to advise the President on High Temperature Superconductivity. Oshman was a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Rice University and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, Sigma Tau, and IEEE.

Ken was a gifted businessman who lent his expertise to the boards of Sun Microsystems, Knight Ridder, ASK Computer Systems, StrataCom, Inc., and Charles Schwab Corporation, among others. He died peacefully on Aug. 6, 2011.