- Great American Business Leaders of the Twentieth Century
M. Kenneth Oshman
Rolm Corporation
1969 - 1984
Communications
b. 1940
| Education |  |
|---|---|
| Undergraduate | Rice University |
| Graduate | MS & PhD, Stanford University |
| Personal | |
|---|---|
| Born-Died | 1940 |
| Birthplace | Missouri (MO) |
| Race | White |
| Father | Professional |
As one of the principal founders of Rolm, Oshman is credited with the design and development of a sophisticated private branch exchange or PBx switch that has become a central component of telecommunication systems. Over the course of fifteen years, Oshman built Rolm into a major competitor to AT&T in the market for office telephone equipment. Rolm’s rapid growth and market saturation caught the eye of IBM which acquired the firm in 1984 for over $1.25 billion.