2017 – Legacy Awards Reception

Co-Founder and Chairman
Ice Mobility

Denise Gibson will be our master of ceremonies. She is a seasoned senior executive and board member with 30 years experience in consumer electronics design and manufacturing, logistics and supply chain, distribution and retail services. She has experience in founding two companies in the wireless industry as well as successful board, CEO and officer level experience in global public and private corporations and non-profits.

Gibson currently serves as the co-founder and chairman of Ice Mobility. Launched in 2014, Ice Mobility is a national provider and distributor of wireless products and supply chain logistics solutions. The company engages and serves retailers, major operators, manufacturers and other technology companies to bring to market a wide array of wireless devices, form the most popular smartphones to emerging technologies.

Gibson served as the founder and former president / CEO of Brightstar US and as a director of Brightstar Corp. from 2001 to 2011. Brightstar is a leading services provider to the global wireless industry, currently operating in excess of 50 countries. In 2001, Gibson founded Brightstar’s U.S. business, initiating the startup and leading the company to in excess of $2 billion in revenue.

Prior to joining Brightstar, she spent 17 years at Motorola. As vice president and general manager of U.S. Markets, she had P&L responsibility for the $2 billion U.S. cellular subscriber business. As vice president of North America Customer Technical Solutions, she managed the technical and engineering operations for Motorola’s cellular and messaging businesses. As director of product marketing and business operations she was instrumental in launching Motorola’s StarTAC™, one of the early iconic products in the wireless history. Prior to her tenure in the business units, she held management positions in human resources, staffing and internal communications.

Gibson serves as a Director on the board of VOXX International. She also serves on the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Board of Industry Leaders and has served as a member of the executive board, chairman of the Wireless Division board and chairman of the audit committee; and has also served as the former vice chair of CTIA’s Wireless Foundation.

As a long time advocate for victims of domestic violence, Gibson founded a wireless industry-wide effort, CALL to PROTECT, which provided wireless phones to victims of abuse. She was honored with the CTIA Wireless Foundation’s Citizenship Award for her work on CALL to PROTECT and her advocacy in helping victims of domestic violence through the use of wireless technologies. She served on the board of Chicago’s Connections for Abused Women & Their Children.

Gibson holds a master’s degree in management from Kellogg at Northwestern University. She received her undergraduate degree in business administration and marketing from Drexel University.

Senior Vice President, CES & Corporate Business Strategy
Consumer Technology Association

Karen Chupka is senior vice president, CES and corporate business strategy for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the U.S. trade association representing more than 2,000 consumer electronics companies, and owning and producing CES, the world’s largest gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies.

She oversees the sales, marketing, production and management of CTA’s events and conferences including its annual tradeshow, CES.

Each January in Las Vegas, more than 3,500 exhibitors, fill more than 2.4 million net square feet of exhibit space and showcase their latest products and services to more than 165,000 attendees at CES. Under her leadership, CES has been named as the largest annual North American tradeshow by Tradeshow Executive Magazine and Tradeshow Week since 2001.

Chupka has been with CTA for 27 years and has held numerous roles within the organization including vice president of business development, director of industry relations and education, and director of marketing for CES.