A Pioneer's Vision: The Power of Visualizing Mission Success

Transition from startup to scale up to a global corporation 
Entrepreneurial pioneering spirit

Chief Augie K Fabela II - Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus 
Augie K Fabela II was born in 1966 in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Fabela developed his entrepreneurial spirit early in life establishing his first business, a neighborhood newspaper delivery route, at the age of 13, and working in his father’s engineering business from the age of 15.
Over the next few years, he founded and led several successful businesses as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, including Maestro, an international marketing consulting company, TDF Corp, an information technology consulting company, SIGMA, a variable workforce employment agency, and a technology private investment company, FGI Wireless Ltd. He became Chairman of Plexsys International (a.k.a. Comsat RSI Wireless), an American mobile infrastructure equipment manufacturer, after a leveraged buyout (LBO) acquisition of the company together with his father.
At the invitation of MAK Vimpel, a Russian defense contractor, Mr. Fabela visited the Soviet Union in October 1991. It was during this period that he saw a significant opportunity for wireless communication in Russia. It was also when he met his future partner in Dr. Dmitri B. Zimin, a senior scientist at the Radio Technical Institute, a division of MAK Vimpel. Inspired, against all odds, to do what many said couldn't be done, Mr. Fabela and Dr. Zimin set out to accomplish their vision of building a start-up wireless communications company in Russia from the ground up, starting with thirteen employees. A young American entrepreneur who was only 25 years old and spoke no Russian, and a 60-year-old Russian scientist who spoke no English, were determined to build an independent company with an entrepreneurial and pioneering spirit--which emerged with the founding of VimpelCom in 1992. 
Mr. Fabela is a devoted philanthropist and civic contributor. He and his wife founded the Fabela Family Foundation, a charity that supports law enforcement programs, early childhood education and Christian initiatives; and he is an advisor to the Dmitri B. Zimin Foundation. As part of his civic contributions, Mr. Fabela became a certified U.S. police officer, spending a year at and graduating from the Illinois NEMERT Police Academy in 2011. Mr. Fabela currently serves as Special Advisor to the Sheriff, with the rank of Chief in the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Chicago, Illinois and as Winthrop Harbor Police Commander of Special Operations, overseeing the SWAT Unit and the AirOne Search and Rescue Helicopter Unit Special Operations.