CEA Reveals ’07 CE Hall Of Fame Class

By TWICE Staff -- TWICE, 3/27/2007

Washington — The class of 2007 CE Hall of Fame was announced March 26 during the Consumer Electronics Association's (CEA) Washington Forum conference being held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, here.

Gary Shapiro, president/CEO of CEA, which created the CE Hall of Fame in 2000, praised the new 11 new members for their efforts to improve the lifestyles of consumers all over the world. "These 11 individuals have contributed enormously to the growth of the consumer electronics industry. They are truly deserving of this honor," he said.

The 2007 CE Hall of Fame class, the categories they were inducted for and the reasons why they were inducted are:

Founders/Inventors:

Paul Allen, who with Bill Gates, founded Microsoft;
Amar Bose, founder and chairman of Bose;
Steve Sasson, an electrical engineer who invented the digital camera at Eastman Kodak; and the German team of Karlheinz Brandenberg, Dieter Seitzer and Heinz Gerhauser, who developed the MP3 format.

Sales/Marketing:

John McDonald, former CEO of Casio.

Retailers:

Richard M. "Dick" Schulze, founder and chairman of Best Buy; and

William Crutchfield, founder of catalog retailer Crutchfield.

Miscellaneous:

J. Edward Day, CEA Counsel and lawyer, who represented the industry in the Betamax case.

Journalist:

The late Art Weinberg, who wrote about the industry for Home Furnishings Daily.

These leaders will be inducted into the CE Hall of Fame during CEA's Industry Forum to be held Oct. 15-17 in San Diego.

The CE Hall of Fame includes inventors, executives, engineers, retailers and journalists who are chosen by a panel of industry judges each year. The judging for 2007 took place in New York on Feb. 27. Nominations are submitted by industry professionals and media through online submissions at www.CE.org.