Born in Gorontalo on 12 September 1930, the late Drs. H Thayeb Gobel is widely regarded as the pioneer of electronic industry in Indonesia. In 1954 he started transistor radio manufacturing business with the brand trademark of "TJAWANG" and successfully marketed his product all over Indonesia. President Soekarno, indonesia's first President, once asked him "why choose to make transistor radio?" and Gobel replied "so that your speeches can be heard by all Indonesian in every corner of this country".

A turning point in Gobel's entrepreneurial life came in 1957 when he received scholarship to study in Japan where he met Konosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Now Panasonic Corporation). The meeting led to the collaboration between the two which allowed Gobel to successfully produced the first monochorme television in Indonesia enabling Indonesian people all over the country to watch 1962 Asian Games that was held in Jakarta.