Judge Joshua W. Martin III
The career of Judge Joshua W. Martin III provides ample evidence that perseverance, dedication, and hard work can elevate a person to the top of the corporate ladder. After six years as vice-president and General Counsel and Secretary of the Board of Director of Bell Atlantic-Delaware, Martin became President and Chief Executive Officer of the company in 1996. Martin became President and CEO of Verizon Delaware in 2000 and held this position until his retirement from the Corporation in March of 2005. Joshua Martin then joined the law firm of Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP, in Wilmington, Delaware, as a partner in 2005, where he counsels clients in the fields of utilities, telecommunications and governmental relations. He also has an alternative dispute practice, where he specializes in mediation and arbitration. Martin is chairman of the firm’s diversity Committee, charged with the responsibility of increasing the number of attorneys of color in the firm. A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Martin credits his parents for stimulating his love and appreciation for science and the law, which helped him as he moved up the corporate ladder. “It was a supportive environment,” he explains. “My mother was a school teacher and my father studied chemistry. They had an appreciation for science. When I worked on science fair projects in high school, we had a better technical library at home than in school.” After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School in 1962, Martin left his native state to study physics at Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio. Prevented by segregation from attending South Carolina’s better institutions of higher learning, he went to Case because “It wanted me and I wanted it.” He earned his degree in physics in 1966 and worked as a physicist at E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. in the explosives department. While at DuPont, he enrolled at Drexel University, where he studied material engineering and received his MS degree in 1971. At Drexel, his interest in law was stimulated and this outstanding student enrolled at Rutgers University School of Law from which he earned his Juris Doctor in 1974. Armed with expertise in law, physics, and engineering, Martin worked as legal intern for the B.P.U.M. Economic Development Corporation for two years. From 1974 to 1982, he was a patent attorney for Hercules, Inc.-Wilmington, Delaware. The state of Delaware soon recognized his potential, and in May 1978, he was appointed to the Delaware Public Service Commission and was named chair of the commission in May 1979. This position catapulted him into statewide prominence. Among other things, it required him to be accountable for professional awareness of trends in telecommunication. Martin chaired the Delaware Public Service Commission until 1983 when he was appointed an Associate Judge of the Delaware Superior Court. He served on the court from July 1982 until December 1989, when he resigned to assume leadership positions with Bell Atlantic-Delaware and subsequently, Verizon. Joshua Martin also completed the Wharton School Executive Development Program in 1996. Mr. Martin holds honorary degrees from Widener University and Goldey Beacom College. The Wilmington News Journal in November 1999, nominated him as Delawarean of the Century in Business. He received the Arthur E. Armitage Sr., Distinguished Alumni Award from Rutgers School of Law-Camden in 1998 for service to the community and contributions to the legal profession. He was listed in the 2006 edition of the Best Lawyers in America. Mr. Martin is a director or trustee of a number of for profit and non-profit institutions in Delaware and other parts of the country. Martin has held leadership positions with many agencies, including the Delaware Public Policy Institute, the Delaware State University Board of Visitors, United Way of Delaware and the Delaware State Bar Association. He has been included in the Outstanding Young Men of America, and Who’s Who in Black America, and is a recipient of the Outstanding Black Delawarean Award. Mr. Martin and his wife Cynthia reside in Wilmington, Delaware.