The 10 Most Influential People in Lighting

LUX Magazine reported that according to Ray Molony that the individuals who have the most influence on the direction of the industry are named below:

Lux Magazine

1.      Charles Swoboda

‘Chuck' Swoboda, 46, is the visionary chief of Cree, the US Company which sees it as its mission to single-handedly drive LED adoption. He oversaw the introduction of pace-setting products including the first US$10 LED lamp, a 93 CRI lamp and $99 LED streetlight as well as a spectacularly ambitious consumer TV advertising campaign to change attitudes to LED.

2.      Ernest Moniz

Moniz is head of the US Department of Energy, which the industry has to thank for establishing the ground rules for measuring and testing LEDs. With the US lighting society IESNA, it developed and popularised LM79 and LM80 which have become the de facto global standards for the performance of LED kit and the life of LED sources respectively.

3.      Shuji Nakamura

Nakamura is the reason there's a LED lighting market at all. While at Nichia Corporation in Japan in 1993, he invented the blue LED which in turn allowed white LED lighting. He is now the co-founder and chief technology officer at innovative US LED maker Soraa, whose gallium-on-gallium technology delivers high CRI, high efficiency lamps.

4.      Eric Rondolat

As CEO of market-leader Philips Lighting, Rondolat has a big job to do in migrating the company from traditional technology to LEDs. Whether it's the company's licensing programme for its intellectual property and patents, its acquisition plan or its product introductions, what Philips does affects the whole market, making Rondolat one of its key players.

5.      Jed Dorsheimer

The man who sank 1,000 business plans, Dorsheimer is the world's leading analyst of lighting stocks and shares and the man publicly-listed firms need to impress. As the Boston-based head of equity research at investment bank Canaccord Genuity he is hugely influential – If Dorsheimer does not like your LED policy, he'll mark your shares as a ‘sell'.

6.      Maryrose Sylvester

Maryrose Sylvester is CEO of GE Lighting, and is responsible for $3 billion of sales and some 13,000 employees. Unlike some GE appointments, Sylvester's a lighting industry veteran; she has worked in GE Lighting for 14 years. If she can transfer the firm's expertise in industrial internet into the lighting market, it could be a game-changer.

7.      Lee Kun-hee

Lee Kun-hee is the third son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull and one of the richest men in the world. As chairman of Samsung Electronics, he gets to decide when and how it enters the global lighting market. The company has made a tentative start, but lighting execs – having seen its takeover of the TV market - are deeply fearful of a full-on assault.

8.      Tony Fadell

If working with designer Jony Ive on the look of the Apple iPod (itself hugely influential in the design of luminaires) wasn't enough, Tony Fadell has launched Nest Labs to commercialise sensor-driven, Wi-Fi-enabled technologies, which observers are citing are the Next Big Thing in lighting. Google agrees – it has just paid a staggering $3.2 billion for the firm.

9.      Adolfo Guzzini

Chief of Italian luminaire manufacturer iGuzzini and part of the Guzzini lighting dynasty, Adolfo has managed to maintain the company's global reputation for leadership in design into the LED era. Recent successes include the Pixel Pro, the Lun-up and, best of all, the stellar Lux Award-winning Laser Blade downlight, which was designed in-house.

10.  Jürg Zumtobel

Son of founder Dr. Walter Zumtobel, Jürg has been in top positions at the eponymous group – the owner of prized brands Zumtobel, Tridonic and Thorn – for decades. He's currently chairman of the supervisory board and last year won a boardroom battle which saw the departure of the CEO and CFO. Critics, however, say the firm is behind the pace on LEDs.

Novel Energy Lighting applauds LUX Magazine for placing the spotlight on these people who have made it happen in the lighting business. As a supplier of such innovative and efficient LED lighting, Novel Energy Lighting also contributes in increasing the pace of LEDs in the industry. It sells LEDs products like panels, GU10 lamps, GLS bulbs, MR16 lamps, tubes, candle bulbs, compatible fixtures, and a lot more.