James Chapman is VP and GM of music and wearables at Qualcomm, which means he oversees both hearables and smart watches. Qualcomm is a driving force behind the chips that make each subsequent hearable generation more powerful and more power-efficient. 

Chapman arrived at Qualcomm in 2015 as part of the $2.4 billion CSR acquisition where he oversaw 400 engineers and later led the company's auto, CE, and IoT segments. Before CSR, Chapman spent many years in engineering and product roles at Broadcom. Since arriving at Qualcomm, among other accomplishments, Chapman oversaw the rollout of the QCC1541 chip which is the workhorse of the true wireless earbuds market today. He earned a PhD in condensed particle physics from Oxford and has an MBA from Henley Business School.