Alexander Matveevich Poniatoff

Founded in 1944, the Ampex company, using his initials, A.M.P., plus "ex" for "excellence" to create the name. The high-frequency bias technique, which made quality recording possible, was invented by Telefunken engineers, and Poniatoff was the beneficiary of what was effectively war booty. Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen's original magnetic recorder had previously been usable only for telephony recording.

In 1956, engineers at Ampex created the world's first rotary head recorder, the VR-1000 videotape recorder. Poniatoff served as president of Ampex until 1955, when he was elected chairman of the board.