# Steve Poizner

> Steve Poizner is a serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur who sold GPS-in-cell-phones pioneer SnapTrack to Qualcomm for $1 billion, served as California Insurance Commissioner, ran for governor, taught high school for a year, wrote a New York Times bestseller, and is now back in the lab as Co-Founder and CEO of oneNav - building the world's first L5-direct GNSS receiver ASIC to make GPS jamming-proof for drones, autonomous vehicles, and defense applications.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at oneNav, Inc.
- **Organizations:** oneNav, Inc., SnapTrack (acquired by Qualcomm), Strategic Mapping Inc., Empowered Careers / EmpoweredU (acquired by Qualcomm), California Department of Insurance, National Security Council
- **From:** United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, MBA (Arjay Miller Scholar), Stanford Graduate School of Business
- **Known for:** Sold SnapTrack to Qualcomm for $1 billion in stock (2000), GPS technology in over 200 million cell phones globally, Elected California Insurance Commissioner by more than one million votes (2006)

## Career timeline

- **1983** — Founded Strategic Mapping Inc., a geographic data software company serving police departments and utilities
- **1996** — Sold Strategic Mapping Inc. to Claritas; GIS mapping division sold to ESRI
- **1995** — Founded SnapTrack, Inc., pioneering GPS receiver technology for cell phones
- **2000** — Sold SnapTrack to Qualcomm for $1 billion in stock; technology reached 200 million cell phones globally
- **2001** — Appointed White House Fellow and Director of Critical Infrastructure Protection at the NSC - began role one week before 9/11
- **2002** — Ended White House Fellowship; volunteered as 12th grade teacher at Mount Pleasant High School in San Jose
- **2003** — Named Rookie Teacher of the Year at Mount Pleasant High School
- **2006** — Elected California Insurance Commissioner (32nd), winning by over one million votes
- **2007** — Managed insurance response to San Diego wildfires; issued Declaration of Insurance Emergency
- **2010** — Ran for California Governor; defeated in Republican primary by Meg Whitman; published NYT bestseller 'Mount Pleasant'
- **2011** — Co-founded Empowered Careers (mobile learning platform) with UCLA and Creative Artists Agency
- **2014** — Empowered Careers (EmpoweredU) acquired by Qualcomm; inducted into Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame
- **2016** — Entrepreneur-in-Residence at UCSD Rady School of Management
- **2018** — Ran for California Insurance Commissioner as an independent; lost to Ricardo Lara (47-53)
- **2019** — Co-founded oneNav, Inc. in Sunnyvale, CA
- **2023** — oneNav raises Series C funding; total funding reaches $50M
- **2025** — oneNav successfully brings up world's first L5-direct GNSS receiver ASIC; receives $1.25M AFWERX SBIR award

## Achievements

- Sold SnapTrack to Qualcomm for $1 billion in stock (2000)
- GPS technology in over 200 million cell phones globally
- Elected California Insurance Commissioner by more than one million votes (2006)
- White House Fellow, Director of Critical Infrastructure Protection at NSC
- New York Times bestselling author ('Mount Pleasant', 2010)
- Inducted into Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame (2014)
- Elected lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations (2006), nominated by former Secretary of State George Shultz
- Arjay Miller Scholar at Stanford GSB (top 10% of MBA class)
- Named Top Male Student at University of Texas at Austin in a student body of 40,000
- Named Rookie Teacher of the Year at Mount Pleasant High School (2003)
- Led oneNav to build world's first L5-direct GNSS ASIC (2025)
- oneNav's L5-direct technology provides 30x more jamming resistance than L1-based GPS

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Published content about GPS receiver failure modes as ongoing thought leadership at oneNav
- **2025-10** — Joined Viasat President Craig Miller at Silicon Valley Space Week to discuss GPS jamming and spoofing threats
- **2025-06** — oneNav selected for AFWERX Direct-to-Phase II SBIR award of $1.25M from the Department of the Air Force
- **2025-05** — oneNav successfully brings up world's first L5-direct GNSS receiver ASIC and tests it in simulated Electronic Warfare environment on a UAV

## Links

- Website: https://onenav.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevepoizner
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/StevePoizner

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/steve-poizner
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-13