Peter Johansen Joins SGM
Lighting pioneer assembles crack design team
to take over responsibility for R&D

Arturo Vicari, Managing Director of the RCF Group and Peter Johansen, the new Director of SGM R&D.

Photo: courtesy of SGM.

Lighting News Published: 10 November 2010
At a press conference in London it was announced that one of the seminal figures in automated lighting has returned to the industry after an absence of more than a decade — to lead SGM Lighting’s product development programme.

Introduced by Arturo Vicari, managing director of the RCF Group (of which SGM is a part), Peter Johansen, who originally piloted Martin Professional to become the world’s most influential lighting manufacturer, takes on the role of Director of SGM R&D. Based in Aarhus, Denmark, with eight of his former R&D team, Johansen will oversee parallel development of a series of conventional discharge moving lights and LED fixtures.

The Dane says he had no intention of re-entering the lighting industry once his ten-year non-compete contract had expired following the sale of Martin Professional. However, after meeting Arturo Vicari the deal was struck. “I could see they would be great guys to work with — but I only agreed to join SGM on the understanding that I could get my old team back,” said Johansen. “I asked them whether they were ready to do it again — and they were immediately hooked on the idea.”

A further stimulus to the new SGM R&D team was the belief that there was huge potential for development. “You are still seeing copies of products dating back to 1993-94. If this had not been the case I would have had no intention of coming back.”

Summing up, Peter Johansen says, “It’s really exciting to be able to give my old team the opportunity to work on developing exclusive products. They are extremely enthusiastic and I can see the progress we are making from day to day.”

Taking up the story, Arturo Vicari described Peter Johansen as an “icon of the lighting industry”. He stated, “When RCF Group went public in 2007 the goal was to grow and to reach a significant position within our business.

“Our main business has always been audio — but last year we decided to look for some other synergies and decided to acquire SGM, a manufacturer of lighting systems mainly for the professional market.

“While SGM was a consolidated brand in the lighting market, it needed a significant restructuring. This we did, and although SGM can now successfully compete in the market, the growth of SGM, as it was, still did not have the momentum that we wanted.

“We started to look for someone that could drive the company out of that situation and when I had the opportunity to talk to Peter Johansen, I knew that he was the person we were looking for.

“To meet someone like Peter at just the right time was pure luck, and we are delighted to welcome such an iconic figure to head up our new R&D team. He and his engineers in Denmark are already well into an exciting development programme and we look forward to showing the first results of this at Pro Light + Sound in Frankfurt next Spring.

“It’s great to have him on board with us.”