Liberty grad heads venture for M2M uses

Pazol’s firm developed technology that enabled machines to talk to machines.

LIBERTY — When Steve Pazol was just a boy attending classes at Liberty schools, his parents knew his math talents were very good.

It turned out they were right and then some.

Pazol, an innovator and leader in the emerging M2M (machine-to-machine) industry, has been named president of the new Verizon Wireless/Qualcomm joint venture, yet to be named, to develop and market advanced M2M uses. He was previously vice president of Global Smart Services at Qualcomm.

A 1982 graduate of Liberty High School, Pazol will move from Highland Park, Ill., near Chicago, to San Diego, Calif., next week to begin his new job.

“The joint venture could be one of the major, major players in the game,” said Atty. James Pazol of Howland, Steve’s father.

Verizon Wireless, based in Basking Ridge, N.J., operates a wireless voice-and-data network with more than 87.7 million customers. Qualcomm Inc., based in San Diego, develops digital wireless communication products and services.

M2M is tech-speak for accomplishing tasks with machines programmed to automatically speak to other machines, not just computer to computer, without humans triggering the communication.

M2M is similar to the OnStar monitoring device on vehicles, Steve Pazol said.

Pazol, who started his career in the computer consulting business, said his firm at the time developed programs, or systems, that enabled companies to monitor their computer networks for problems, to better keep them up and running.

His firm moved to the M2M level while working with Crown Castle International in Pittsburgh, which has cell towers with aircraft-warning lights. Pazol’s firm, using computer-to-computer technology as a basis, developed an M2M system to alert Crown Castle when those lights went out.

“That was the start for us with machines, other than computers, communicating with each other. In 1999, that was a new application of technology, and in 2003 we spun a company out of the consulting firm called nPhase,” Pazol said.

Then nPhase was sold to Qualcomm, where Pazol ran the company’s Global Smart Services business and which led to his eventually being asked to head the joint venture between Qualcomm and Verizon Wireless.

“We [Qualcomm] have the technology, and Verizon Wireless has the network and the people,” he said.

M2M technology has been around for a while. But it is finally reaching prime time, and the big guys are now coming into the market. Some analysts project that M2M will reach more than 85 million connections globally by 2012, Pazol said.

“The next five years will be a significant period of innovation in M2M,” he said.

M2M technology has many applications, including in health care, manufacturing, utilities, distribution and consumer products.

In health care, for instance, with M2M a device can monitor a patient’s heart in the hospital or at home, and rather than printing out the results on paper, it sends the information wirelessly to another machine that the doctor can read in real time.

M2M technology also makes sense, Pazol said, in home health care.

There is a big push to get patients out of the hospital more quickly, but at the same time to monitor their condition and make sure they are doing their treatments. For patients with sleep apnea, for instance, their CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine can be monitored remotely to ensure it is operating properly without a home visit, he said.

There are a lot of health-care clinical trials going on right now. M2M should not only result in less- expensive medical care, but also in more accurate information and delivery of better quality of care, Pazol said.

“We’re not medical experts, but we can make their machines communicate,” he said.

Looking ahead, Pazol admitted the move from Chicago to San Diego is “bittersweet. We have family and friends here. But, it’s an opportunity to go to the next level. Our kids are relatively young, and if we’re ever going to do it, now is the time,” he said.

Steve, 45, and his wife, Leah, an attorney originally from St. Louis, Mo., have three children: a son, Eli, and two daughters, Molly and Avery.

He is also active in community affairs in Chicago. While in his 20s, as part of the Big Buddy program, he was a mentor for a young inner-city boy with whom he is still in contact 20 years later. He sits on the board of SuperSibs!, an organization dedicated to helping siblings of children with pediatric cancer, his father said.

Steve is the oldest of three sons of Atty. James and Roberta Mark Pazol. Mrs. Pazol is a Youngstown native. All the boys are Liberty High School graduates.

Richard, of Shaker Heights, is associate director of the Case Western Reserve University Counseling Service. Jon, a high school science teacher in Chicago, is currently aboard the Coast Guard’s USS Healy 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle with 30 other scientists mapping the ocean floor.

James and Roberta Pazol, who met while attending Ohio State University, will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary Sunday. Roberta was a schoolteacher in Youngstown City and Liberty Local School districts.

James Pazol was a trial lawyer for 47 years with the Anzellotti Sperling Pazol and Small law firm. He is retired and now does mediation work.

“Needless to say, we are a little proud of all of our sons,” James Pazol said.

alcorn@vindy.com

The oldest of three sons of Atty. James and Roberta Mark Pazol of Howland, Pazol is president of the new joint venture between Verizon Wireless/Qualcomm Inc. Before that, he was vice president and general manager of Qualcomm’s Global Smart Services and founder and chief executive officer of nPhase, a leading machine-to-machine (M2M) technology firm. Active in numerous professional activities, he has received several awards and recognitions. They include:

Chicago Innovation Award.

Named as one of the original 10 M2M Pioneers by M2M Magazine.

Moderated the first M2M web log—M2Mblog (www.M2Mblog.com).

Wrote numerous articles in technology journals, and is on the advisory board of M2M Magazine.

Technical editor of Unicenter Advisor Magazine for seven years, was guest editor of Internet Security Advisor and is the technical editor and co-author of Unicenter TNG for Dummies.

Featured speaker and panel member at multiple Wharton School of Business, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and Northwestern Business School entrepreneurial classes.

Quote: When asked when he knew computers were in his future, he said, “When I realized computers had the least chemistry requirements. I did not like chemistry. Those are the are the kinds of things that at the time you have no idea what the implications will be.”

Source: Steve Pazol