Few, if any, in-house leaders are as battle-tested as Donald Rosenberg, who helped Qualcomm Inc. overcome a series of high-stakes business, legal and regulatory challenges and secure its place as a U.S.-based leader in 5G technology during his time as the chipmaker’s general counsel. 

Rosenberg, a former legal chief for IBM Corp. and Apple Inc., arrived at Qualcomm in San Diego in 2007. At the time, the company was sparring over antitrust and intellectual property rights issues with Nokia Corp., Broadcom Inc. and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition in Brussels.