How I became a techie: Kiva Allgood

Feb 1, 2016 12:00 PM ET
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"Tech is my passion." -Kiva Allgood

My passion for technology and science actually started when I was a kid. I'm one of five kids, and I am the only girl. So I have had the pleasure of blowing up things and setting off rockets and doing kind of all of those guys' things since I was a little girl.

My mom was a mathematician, so she was always challenging me to do as well in math and science as everybody else. And I did all the Science Olympiads, and I was the only girl in AP Chemistry and Physics in high school. So really, the love for finding answers and kind of peeling back started [for me] as a young kid.

A lot of my science projects were around more biology. So when I went to Northwestern, I got a Bachelor in Science, and I started off thinking that I was going to be a scientist or a chemist or something along those lines. But I transitioned into what was called e-commerce at the time. 

I graduated a little while ago -- around 20 years ago! -- and was able to use my love for science to dive headfirst into what now has become telecommunications and the wireless world. It's been a great journey.

Kiva Allgood is vice president of business development at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. She has over twenty years of strategy, product and business management experience in consumer electronics, telecommunications, wireless and technology industries. And she's a bit of a tomboy.