Former Audio-Technica U.S. executive vice president and CEO Ken Reichel passed away, Oct. 15. He was at his home in Richmond, Va. He joined A-T in 1982 and retired in 2000.
Phil Cajka, Audio-Technica U.S. President and CEO said: “Ken had a powerful combination of technical understanding and sales acumen, which served him well in his time with the company and gained him the respect and admiration of customers, fellow sales personnel and A-T’s R&D and engineering team. Ken also had strong ties to our parent company, Audio-Technica Japan. He was known for his larger-than-life personality and was as comfortable drawing up a circuit design on a napkin as he was pitching a million-dollar deal to a potential customer. Ken had an incredible sense of humor and showmanship, which often manifested itself at sales meetings, where he would don his infamous pink jacket.”
Reichel was one of the major players in building Audio-Technica’s U.S. presence from small Japanese microphone specialist into a major player in professional and consumer products. He was closely associated with A-T’s UniPoint installation microphones and 40 series studio mics.
