Jack Tramiel

Jack Tramiel was a Polish-American entrepreneur who founded Commodore and later led Atari Corporation. Born in Lodz, Poland, he survived Auschwitz and forced labour before emigrating to the United States after the Second World War.

After serving in the US Army, Tramiel opened a typewriter repair business and founded Commodore in Toronto in 1955. The company moved from typewriters into adding machines and electronic calculators. When calculator manufacturers began producing their own chips, Tramiel bought MOS Technology in 1976, bringing semiconductor production and engineer Chuck Peddle into Commodore.

Peddle persuaded Tramiel that complete personal computers represented the next market. Commodore introduced the PET in 1977, followed by the VIC-20 and Commodore 64. Tramiel's goal of making computers "for the masses, not the classes" combined vertical integration, aggressive pricing and wide retail distribution. The result made Commodore one of the largest home-computer companies of the early 1980s.

Tramiel left Commodore in 1984 and formed Tramel Technology. He soon acquired Atari's consumer assets from Warner Communications and reorganised them as Atari Corporation. The Atari ST became the new company's flagship computer, while Atari continued its console and 8-bit computer businesses. Tramiel later stepped back from daily management and died on 8 April 2012.