State Senate Confirms Sam Ginn for Trustee Position

The Alabama Senate confirmed the appointment of Samuel Ginn to the Auburn University Board of Trustees on Thursday. Ginn, who became an AU trustee immediately upon confirmation, will take his seat on April 22 at the next meeting of the board.

The State Senate voted unanimously for Ginn’s appointment on a recommendation by the Senate Confirmations Committee, which also unanimously approved the appointment.

Auburn’s five-member trustee selection committee, headed by Gov. Bob Riley, selected Ginn in January to fill the at-large position on the AU Board previously held by Golda McDaniel, whose term expired on Dec. 31.

Ginn, the namesake for AU’s College of Engineering, will serve a seven-year term on the 14-member AU Board. The California-based wireless communications industry leader is the only board member from outside the state. The other at-large members are industrial developer Earlon McWhorter of Anniston and Alabama Power Co. President Charles McCrary of Birmingham.

A 1959 Auburn Engineering graduate, Ginn is co-chair of the university’s capital campaign, and his $25 million gift in 2001 is the largest in Auburn history. His gift was instrumental in Auburn’s launch of the first wireless engineering program in the nation.

A pioneer in the wireless communications industry, Ginn is among the most prominent advocates of that emerging global industry. The Alabama native began his career with AT&T in 1960, and by 1977 he was vice president of network operations for AT&T Long Lines. In 1978, he became vice president of Pacific Telephone.

Sensing the potential for wireless communications, he led the AirTouch communications company through a spin-off from the Pacific Telesis Group in the early 1990s and a merger with Vodafone later in the decade.

He retired as chairman of Vodafone in 2000 and has remained active in the industry as an investor and adviser to start-up ventures.