Founders

Launching a Spirit of Innovation

The spirit of innovation is the cornerstone of Masimo and our consumer audio brands thanks to the enduring legacy of each brand's founders. Their bold ideas, passion, insight, and entrepreneurial spirit set the tone for the culture of creativity and pioneering solutions that continues to this day. Their unwavering commitment to these core values serve as a guiding light, defining each brand's DNA.

Joe Kiani
Masimo


Joe Kiani founded Masimo in 1989, growing the company from a literal garage start-up into a successful publicly traded company that holds thousands of healthcare and consumer-focused patents and whose technologies are used to monitor more than 200 million people a year. He co-invented the Masimo SET® technology, which has been called “modern pulse oximetry.” SET® revolutionized how clinicians measure this “fifth vital sign” and how they care for patients in the hospital and at home.   As former Chairman and CEO of Masimo, Joe innovated and expanded Masimo’s footprint in the professional healthcare and telemonitoring industry, while also leading the company into new avenues, such as consumer wearable devices and audio solutions.

John Bowers
Bowers & Wilkins®

John Bowers joined the Royal Corps of Signals during World War II at the age of just 17, and his expertise and enthusiasm for all things radio quickly attracted attention, resulting in his joining the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6. Bowers was stationed with Roy Wilkins and tasked with maintaining clandestine radio contact with British agents and resistance fighters in occupied Europe. The two men became firm friends and quickly concluded that after the war, they would go into business together, opening a small shop in Worthing in August 1946 to serve the growing numbers of amateur radio enthusiasts. Bowers was dissatisfied with the sound of many commercially available loudspeakers and dreamed of producing the perfect loudspeaker – of delivering recorded sound that is utterly faithful to the live performance and to the artist’s original intent. His obsessive pursuit of perfection and steadfast refusal to accept anything but the very best have shaped everything that we do and everything that we are. “Good enough” simply isn’t good enough for Bowers & Wilkins. 

Mike Viglas
Classé®

“There has to be something better.” These were the words of Mike Viglas in 1979, sending him on a path to partnership with engineer David Reich and the founding of Classé Audio. Mike, a Greek immigrant living in Montréal, Canada as a young man with little money but plenty of energy and determination, was focused on the question: How can we get both performance and reliability from high-end electronics? Together with David Reich, a talented young engineer building his own solid-state amplifiers, they founded Classé, a brand that quickly earned a reputation for both reliability and its open, natural, authoritative sound.

Frederick Whitney Horn
Denon®


American entrepreneur Frederick Whitney Horn established Japan's first record company – the antecedent to Denon – in 1910 to further the possibilities of audio technology through the phonograph. Japan Gramophone Company not only improved on the existing gramophone but also made it available to consumers worldwide. It was rebranded as Denon in the 1930s, and today Denon continues to upgrade its signature products, showcasing the core values of technological innovation and cutting-edge sound quality through harnessing the latest trends in audio.

Saul Marantz
Marantz®

In 1953, Saul Marantz's passion project became a business, and the Marantz Audio Company was born from his home in New York, as he found that a home music system that met his exacting standards in the early 1950's just did not exist. He envisioned a completely new architectural idea for sound reproduction, and employing his skill in electrical engineering, built the proof of his concept: the Audio Consolette, a Hi-Fi pre-amplifier designed for the home. Saul Marantz was a true pioneer of Hi-Fi, and his passion for music—and the uncompromising pursuit of audio excellence through his original acoustic philosophy, to get the listener as close to the music as possible—is what continues to unite Marantz with people all over the world. 

Matthew Polk, George Klopfer, Sandy Gross
Polk® Audio

Back in 1972, Matthew Polk, George Klopfer, and Sandy Gross, a maverick team of big dreamers with $200 to their names, embarked on a wildly ambitious adventure to bring engaging, immersive sound experiences within reach for everyone. They built a sound system from scratch for their friends, who couldn’t pay but became de facto partners, using the system for bluegrass conventions and renting it out to other people. Some local bands liked the system and then got them to build more, resulting in a nice little business, but each system was different and had to be designed uniquely. They developed the philosophy of “great sound for all”, as a complete listening experience at a reasonable price was missing in the market, and they pivoted to consumer loudspeaker products. “Incredible Sound, Affordable Price” became Polk’s first real advertisement, a sentiment that lives on today with the goal of serving Polk customers first and foremost.