Lutron To Remain Family-Owned Company After Death of Founder Joel Spira

Lutron will continue to be owned by the Spira family, after last week's death of chairman and founder Joel Spira, the company said in a statement Monday. Ruth Spira and her daughter, Susan Hakkarainen, will be Lutron co-chairmen and will lead the company with Lutron President Mike Pessina and the current management team, it said. The announcement is in keeping with the wishes of founders Joel and Ruth Spira that the company “remain a private family owned and run business,” it said. Hakkarainen has been with Lutron since 1996, most recently as chief marketing officer. The Spiras started the work behind Lutron in a spare bedroom of their New York apartment in the late 1950s with Joel Spira’s first invention, a rotary dimmer that could vary the intensity of the lights in homes, according to company history. The Spiras incorporated Lutron in 1961 with the goal of enabling people to control light in their homes. Lutron holds more than 2,700 worldwide patents and Lutron innovations include the first solid-state dimmer, the first electronic dimming ballast for fluorescent lights and the first self-contained preset lighting control system. Messina said in the statement: “We are deeply saddened by the passing of our Chairman and Founder, Joel S. Spira. He was our leader, our guide, our mentor, our strategist and our friend.”