Shelby Bryan

Shelby Bryan

John Shelby Bryan (born March 21, 1946) is an American telecommunications pioneer, international business executive, and venture capitalist.

The Texas-born millionaire, who fought as a Golden Gloves boxer, received his B.A. and Law Degree from the University of Texas. After graduating the University of Texas Law School, Mr. Bryan began working with Ralph Nader, and then went on to study at Harvard Business School. From there he began working at Morgan Stanley until in 1977. In 1977 Mr Bryan left Morgan Stanley to partner with Swedish media owner Jan Stenbeck to form one of the first modern cellular phone systems in the U.S.

As CEO, Mr. Bryan turned the newly founded Millicom, into a company which created cellular operations in more countries, covering a greater population, than any other company to date. One of Millicom's early joint ventures start-ups was Vodafone, which became the world’s largest cell phone company.

In 1985, Bryan built up Millicom, which at the time was one of the first of only two cellular phone companies in existence. In 1994, Shelby Bryan became CEO of ICG Communications, and in 1996, Bryan became one of Bill Clinton's chief fund raisers and supporters. In 1999, Bryan was named to President Clinton's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

In 2000, Bryan stepped down from his role at ICG as ICG began to face difficult times. Arguments can be made that this was in part due to the marketplace uncertainty the company faced, as well as the competitive nature of the industry which was populated by larger companies who were investing billions in infrastructure. Some have said that Bryan would not cower to the press, so when troubles hit ICG, they were more critical of him then they might otherwise have been.

Currently BusinessWeek lists Bryan as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PingTone Communications, an IP communications company. He is also involved with oil and gas ventures.