Nagra inventor and Kudelski founder Stefan Kudelski dies at 84

Kudelski Group founder and honorary chairman Stefan Kudelski has died at the age of 84. Kudelski, the father of the Swiss TV technology group’s current chairman and CEO, André Kudelski, founded the company in 1951 and invented the world’s first portable professional recording device, the Nagra.

Kudelski led the company from its foundation until 1991, when André Kudelski succeeded him. He continued to serve as a member of the board of Kudelski until 2006 and remained honorary chairman.

In 1983, he entered the hall of fame of motion picture and television by receiving the John Grierson International Gold Medal for his work.

“With the loss of Stefan Kudelski, our group will miss its founder and the inventor of the Nagra recorder. Stefan Kudelski defined our group. The values he stood for form the foundation of our company and its reputation today across the five continents. Among those values, the determination to demonstrate that technological challenges described as impossible are always successfully achieved by teams that know no boundaries,” said André Kudelski.