The search is over. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) has appointed 45-year-old Dr. Sanjay Jha, former Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) COO, as co-chief executive officer of Motorola, and CEO of its troubled handset division, starting immediately. Jha reports directly to the Board. Greg Brown will also serve as co-CEO of the company, and has been named CEO of its Broadband Mobility Solutions unit, which includes its Home & Networks Mobility and Enterprise Mobility Solutions businesses. The two men will guide the company to its eventual separation, which Brown said in its earnings conference call earlier last week, is slated for 2009’s third quarter.

Based on Motorola’s decision to go with a tech-heavy candidate, the handset unit looks like it will be concentrating heavily on technology—that is, more advanced features—to compete in the market. At Qualcomm, where Jha has been for 14 years, he oversaw Corporate Research and Development and QUALCOMM Flarion Technologies. He also served as president of its chipset and software division QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies (release).

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