Louis Jacobson

Three consecutive generations of Jacobson passed through the Wits Electrical Engineering Department, Louis Jacobson, David Harris Jacobson and Sven Martin Jacobson. Louis, David’s father was a natural born entrepreneur. He graduated in 1932 with a BSc (Eng) in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. He worked for 2 years at the so called Victoria Falls Power Station near Johannesburg. He then founded Alpha Electrical, an electrical motor repair shop. Soon this became Alpha Harris Pty Ltd, a designer and manufacturer of professional electrical equipment. Louis was a major pioneer in the South African electrical engineering industry, later founding The First Electrical Corporation of South Africa Ltd, a huge company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Continuing as an avid, determined, originator and developer of high-tech companies he then founded FWJ Electrical Industries Pty Ltd. which developed the World’s first Earth Leakage protection device for use in industry. Sadly he died in his professional prime at the age of 49 from an inoperable brain tumour.

Louis Jacobson is featured in Prof G R Bozzoli's remarkably interesting book Forging Ahead, published in 1997 by the Witwatersrand University Press. David's son Sven M Jacobson graduated in 1991 and later received the MBA degree at the Wits Business School. Currently he is in venture capital in New York City as Principal of the company Carrot Capital and CEO of Remedy Pharmaceuticals, which has developed a new drug to treat stroke and brain and spinal trauma.