Universal Display Corporation Announces Passing of Founder and Visionary Entrepreneur Sherwin I. Seligsohn

Universal Display Corporation (Nasdaq: OLED) today announced that Founder Sherwin I. Seligsohn passed away on December 3, 2022. The entire UDC community mourns the loss of Sherwin, an esteemed visionary, leader and friend, and extends deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.

With an exceptional intellect and fervent curiosity, Sherwin leaves an indelible mark on the display and wireless industries. Born in 1935, Sherwin’s immense drive for learning eclipsed conventional teaching methods, so he left high school and pursued his life’s interests, including the stock market. Throughout his entire life, Sherwin loved the Jersey Shore and he would regularly spend time on the beach with his young children. Sherwin’s curiosity to track the financial markets and get real-time stock quotation updates, without having to leave the beach, sparked the idea of a portable data machine. His pursuit and passion for wireless technology led Sherwin to form his first multi-billion dollar company in 1972, International Mobile Machines Corporation (IMM), now known as InterDigital, Inc. (Nasdaq: IDCC). In 1990, Sherwin stepped down as Chairman of IMM and began to look for his next venture. After reading about novel research work by Drs. Forrest and Thompson in self-emissive organic materials in Nature magazine, Sherwin decided to explore this groundbreaking technology with a visit to the electrical engineering school at Princeton University. There, he observed a green dot, with a 9-volt battery hanging from it, light up for seconds before it expired. From that tiny organic green dot, Sherwin envisioned the future of display technology and founded Universal Display Corporation in June 1994. Fast forward to today, Universal Display has grown and evolved from an R&D start-up to a global leader in the OLED industry.

“Sherwin’s extraordinary vision, entrepreneurial passion and unique leadership led to the creation of two of the most impactful enabling technology companies in the global OLED and digital cellular ecosystems,” said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display Corporation. “I had the privilege of working closely with Sherwin for more than 40 years. He was not only my brilliant mentor, but also my wonderful and generous friend. With a long-term strategic vision, Sherwin cultivated and nurtured UDC’s guiding principles of curiosity, respect, humility and determination. His mindset of constantly ‘thinking outside the box’ and courageous conviction have been embedded into the Company’s DNA and are key to UDC’s remarkable success. Sherwin’s incredible legacy will continue to drive the Company forward on its path of growth and innovation. We will miss him tremendously.”