David Margolese

David Margolese (born October 24, 1957) is an Israeli entrepreneur, philanthropist, and co-founder of Sirius XM Radio, serving as chairman and CEO from 1993 to 2002. Considered "one of the earliest advocates of pay radio," he "effectively created the industry." Early life Margolese was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. He attended the University of British Columbia, dropping out after one year. His father, Leonard, also dropped out of college, to sell television sets in the early 1950s, ultimately building a successful television store. Cellular Rogers Wireless In 1978, at the age of 20, Margolese founded Canadian Telecom, a Vancouver-based radio paging company. He struggled in his early years as an entrepreneur. In 1980, he changed his company's focus to what would become the future cellular market. He prognosticated in his 1980 position paper, years before the commercial introduction of cellular and at a time when computers were in use by less than one percent of the public, that cellular "has the potential to become all pervasive." He also envisioned that it would "be used for much more" than just phone calls. When cell phones became widely available, it paid big dividends for Margolese. His company joined with Rogers Communications to form Cantel (a contraction of the name Canadian Telecom). Cantel would ultimately become Rogers Wireless, as of 2012 the largest cellular company in Canada, with over 9.3 million subscribers and revenues over $7 billion. Margolese cashed out of the company in 1989 to found his next venture.