Ike Kim, the number-one man at what is striving to be the number-two paging device manufacturing company, died earlier this month, ending a successful but far-too-short career in the wireless communications industry.
Kim, 46, was president and chief executive officer of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Standard Telecom America Inc., the U.S. subsidiary and distributor for Standard Telecom Co. Ltd. in Seoul, South Korea.
He was born Jan. 16, 1952, in South Korea, and first entered the wireless world at Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in 1986. There he met Sung Ha, who would become Kim’s longtime friend and chief operations manager at Standard Telecom.
According to Ha, Kim started out at Samsung as a manager in the company’s export division where Ha said he was well-liked and respected for his aggressive business nature and his ability to do his job well.
He eventually became general manager in charge of exporting all telecommunications goods, including wireless products such as cellular phones and pagers.
In 1995, Kim left Samsung for Standard Telecom. The company asked him to move to the United States to start up and run Standard Telecom America. Ha said Kim accepted the challenge because he was very curious and willing to experience new things. He saw his move to the states as a great challenge, one he took head on. His goal when coming here was to make Standard Telecom America the second-largest paging manufacturer in the country, behind the giant Motorola Inc.
Standard Telecom manufactures the Nixxo line of pagers using both the POCSAG and FLEX protocols. Nixxo products include the Tutti numeric pager and the FLEX-protocol based Tutti-X, the SwingMemo numeric/alphanumeric pager and the NixxoPop combination numeric pager and FM radio. Standard Telecom America is the company’s presence here in the states, and is primarily concerned with marketing and distributing the pagers.
Kim gained the reputation at Standard Telecom of being an effective executive and fair businessman. “I really enjoyed doing business with him,” said Arlin Torbett, vice president of business development for GWComm Inc., a company that has agreements with Standard Telecom.
According to Monica Beeman, marketing director at Standard Telecom America, Kim gave his employees a lot of responsibility and acted primarily as a facilitator. “Ike was an intricate part of what we do here,” she said. “He talked to everybody and had faith in his managers.”
“He enjoyed his work very much,” Ha said. “Everybody respected him.”
Last November, Kim was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He worked not to let the condition affect him. Concerned about his company, Kim would often visit the office and converse with employees, ensuring them that their leader was well. He did his best to keep up appearances and boost morale, never letting on how the illness was affecting him.
“He didn’t want anyone to lose faith in Standard Telecom America because of his illness,” Beeman said. “He didn’t tell anybody how sick he really was.”
Privately, he fought hard against the disease. On Feb. 2, not two weeks after celebrating his 46th birthday, that fight ended. He is survived by his wife; a son, 20; a daughter, 17; and a company determined to continue his dream.
“His goal was to make Standard Telecom America number two and we intend to carry that on,” Beeman said. “We intend to do that for him. We can make it happen for him as well as for us. We have more motivation to make this happen for his memory.”
At this point, the company hasn’t found anyone to replace Kim as president and CEO. According to Ha, the executives at the parent company in Korea will assume many of his duties. Beeman said that Kim’s effectiveness as their leader when he was alive has left them with the ability and motivation to function well in his absence.
“Right now we’re pulling together and working together to keep the company going,” Beeman said. “We’re going to do just fine.”
