Norio Ohga, former Sony president, CEO and chairman who played an important development role in the acceptance of CD formats has died. He was 81.

Ohga, was a senior advisor and former president and chairman of the Sony. In 1982 he was Sony's president and added the position of CEO to his title in 1989, the same year Sony purchased Columbia Pictures. He  retired in 2003.

One of Ohga's greatest achievements was he spearheaded Sony initiative to develop CDs. As a former musician, Ohga wanted CDs to be large enough to listen to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony all the way through without stopping. This explains why CDs could contain more information than was required for pop albums at the time.