David Rosen
From Sega Retro
David Rosen is an American businessman who became the chief executive officer of Japanese video game company SEGA in 1965. He retired from the company as Chairman in 1996.
Rosen served in the United States Armed Forces, and remained in Japan after his discharge. In 1954, he founded a company called Rosen Enterprises, Ltd. That company would merge with the jukebox manufacturer Service Games in 1965 to form Sega. Mr. Rosen became CEO of the merged company and stayed in that position after Gulf and Western's purchase of Sega in 1967 (or 1970 depending on sources), as well as after the arcade and pinball manufacturer Bally Manufacturing purchased the American division of Sega in 1983.
In 1984, he purchased the shares of Sega Enterprises from Bally with the head of a company Rosen purchased in 1979, Hayao Nakayama, Shoichiro Irimajiri and of the chairman of CSK Corporation's He's friend, Isao Okawa. He was shunted down into the position of 4th President. In 1986, Rosen became the head of Sega of America after Sega went public in Japan as a corporation and split off into three divisions.
He remained at the head of Sega of America until 1989 when he hired Michael Katz as the new president. He stayed on oSega of America until he retired on July 15th, 1996.