Claude Nobs (February 4, 1936 – January 10, 2013) was the founder and general manager of the Montreux Jazz Festival.

At the age of 31, while he was director of the Tourism Office of Montreux, he organized the first jazz festival featuring artists such as Charles Lloyd, Keith Jarrett, Ron McLure and Jack DeJohnette.

Nobs saved several young people who had hidden in the casino, thinking they would be sheltered from the flames.

This earned him a mention in the song "Smoke on the Water" (the line "Funky Claude was running in and out pulling kids out the ground").

During the 1990s, Nobs shared the directorship of the festival with Quincy Jones, and made Miles Davis an honorary host.

In 2005,[2] during the referendum campaign on registered partnership in Switzerland for same-sex couples, Nobs came out publicly to support the new law.