Maria Popo is President and Chief Business Officer of Ubee Interactive a global provider of wireless & wired broadband solutions. Maria leads worldwide business development for fixed-line and mobility products to drive business growth. She is also responsible for new product strategy and associated revenue. Maria leads product, engineering, operations, sales and administrative teams globally. Ubee has shipped to date approximately 30 million broadband access devices to Cable, Telco and Mobile Operators. Ubee Americas was ranked #8 in the 2012 “Top 50 Fastest Growing Women-Led Companies” sponsored by WPO and American Express as noted in the Wall Street Journal April 2012 edition.
Ms. Popo began with Ubee in 2006 as President of the Americas. Prior to this Maria was VP Cable for Taiwan based Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer and VP for Ambit Microsystems. She began her career at Dorran Photonics, a fiber optic connector start-up acquired by 3M Telecom. At 3M she held various technical and non-technical roles including Product Management and Technical Services. Maria later joined 3Com Corporation where she held senior sales and marketing leadership roles and helped bring to market the first generation of cable modems.
She is an example of what can result from steadfast resolve and strategic innovation applied to both leadership and business. In 2002, Maria turned 3Com’s withdrawal from the cable modem business into an entity of her own making by way of Ambit. With her unique combination of determination, unimpeachable integrity, and genuine empathy for those she works with, Maria turned misfortune into success. The prospect of even surviving against a bevy of Fortune 100 companies, entrenched in the cable industry and consumer electronics markets, was incredibly slim. But through perseverance, savvy, street-smarts, and an authenticity rarely seen in the business world, she built a business that continues to grow, even in this turbulent economic environment. Maria has consistently flourished where others failed, creating one of the leading suppliers of broadband CPE (customer premise solutions) from the ground, up.
Maria has led Ubee to drive important industry achievements such as:
- DOCSIS 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 cable modems
- The industry’s first wireless cable modems & wireless voice modems
- DOCSIS 3.0 solutions
- Advanced home networking devices
- IP STB/Video Gateways
In terms of other demonstrable accomplishments, Maria has created programs to develop future leaders such as the Broadband Generation Leadership Program at Ubee — a unique internship plan designed to give back to the cable industry some of the rewards Maria reaped along the way. More recently, she launched a grassroots effort in executive engineering education to further develop the talent pool in the technology sector while providing individuals advanced career opportunities.
In 2011, Ms. Popo was a WICT Rocky Mountain Woman of the Year. She is a member of WICT, SCTE and Colorado’s WiseWomen Council. Maria is 2013/2014 President of Rocky Mountain WICT and also serves as a Supporting Advisory Board member of Rocky Mountain SCTE. She has contributed as a mentor to both Philadelphia and Rocky Mountain WICT Chapters. She is a supporter of the Camellia Network which connects youth aging out of foster care to critical resources through Social Media. She is trained in Software Engineering and IT from Colorado Technical in Colorado Springs. Maria is married with two children and lives in Denver. In her spare time she likes to run through the trails of Colorado.
