Jack Tramiel (/trəˈmɛl/ trə-MEL; born Idek Trzmiel; December 13, 1928 – April 8, 2012) was a Polish-American businessman and Holocaust survivor, best known for founding Commodore International.

He was examined by Josef Mengele and selected for a work party, after which he and his father were sent to the labor camp Ahlem near Hanover,[6] while his mother remained at Auschwitz.

Like many other inmates, his father was reported to have died of typhus in the work camp; however, Tramiel believed he was killed by an injection of gasoline.

[6] In 1953, while working as a taxi driver, Tramiel bought a shop in the Bronx to repair office machinery,[9] securing a $25,000 loan for the business from a U.S. Army entitlement.

Stung twice by the same source, Gould suggested that Tramiel travel to Japan to learn why they were able to outcompete North Americans in their own local markets.

[14] When Commodore released its first calculators, combining an LED display from Bowmar and an integrated circuit from Texas Instruments (TI), it found a ready market.

It was first shown, privately, at the Chicago Consumer Electronics Show in 1977, and soon the company was receiving 50 calls a day from dealers wanting to sell the computer.

The first PET computers were sold primarily in Europe, where Commodore had also introduced the first wave of digital handheld calculators.

[14] As prices dropped and the market matured, the PET's monochrome monitor (green text on black screen) was at a disadvantage in the market when compared to machines like the Apple II and Atari 8-bit computers, which offered color graphics and could be hooked to a television as an inexpensive display.

"[17] An industry executive attributed to Tramiel the discontinuation of the TI-99/4A home computer in 1983, after the company had lost hundreds of millions of dollars, stating that "TI got suckered by Jack".

Adam Osborne wrote in 1981:[22] The microcomputer industry abounds with horror stories describing the way Commodore treats its dealers and its customers.

Tramiel definitely plays hardball, but he deserves credit for what he has been able to accomplish.Tramiel angrily left a January 13, 1984 meeting of Commodore's board of directors led by chairman Gould, and never returned to the company.

What happened at the board meeting remains unclear,[20] but the departure surprised the industry because of Commodore's great success against competitors.

[21][20] Neil Harris, editor of Commodore Magazine, recalled: Well, came that fateful Consumer Electronics Show in January of '84 – a very strange press conference.

Jack Tramiel got on stage in front of a whole ballroom full of press people to make the announcement that in the calendar year of 1983, Commodore had sold more than a billion dollars worth of products.

[24] Their disagreement was so bitter that, after his departure, Commodore Magazine was forbidden to quote Tramiel or mention his name.

wrote that although Tramiel's "obsession with controlling the cost of every phase of the manufacturing process" had led to record profits during the home computer price war, his "inflexible one-man rule" had resulted in poor dealer relations and "a steady turnover of top executives at Commodore".

[25] Whilst acknowledging this description of events, David Pleasance (the eventual managing director of Commodore UK) also states that Gould told him the falling out was due to Tramiel's insistence on his three sons joining the board.

The man I worked for thought this would dilute his share in the company and lose influence in the process - that was absolutely wrong.

Under Tramiel's direction, the Atari ST was a considerable success in Europe, and globally in the professional music market.

[34]) Steve Arnold of LucasArts said after meeting with Tramiel that he reminded him of Jabba the Hutt, while within Atari Darth Vader was often the comparison.

"[36] In 1988 Stewart Alsop II called Tramiel and Alan Sugar "the world's two leading business-as-war entrepreneurs".

[37] In the late 1980s, Tramiel decided to step away from day-to-day operations at Atari, naming his son, Sam, President and CEO.

In 1996, Tramiel sold Atari to disk-drive manufacturer Jugi Tandon Storage in a reverse merger deal.