When Noel Lee first went into business selling premium speaker wire, stereo retailers thought the idea was as crazy as selling bottled water. That's because speaker wire then was as free as tap water.

More than twenty-nine years later, Noel's marketing prowess has transformed Monster Cable Products, Inc. of Brisbane, California into one of the premier consumer electronics brands and one of the San Francisco Bay Area's largest minority-owned and private employers.

Known as "The Head Monster", Noel has built a unique, entrepreneurial culture that goes far beyond Monster® products. With an uncompromising work ethic, a "Monster Attitude®," innovative ideas, and a team of hard working "Monsters" at his side, Noel bootstrapped the company that is known today throughout the market for being the "best" at what they do. His success serves as an inspiration for entrepreneurs worldwide and has been profiled in Time, USA Today, Red Herring and Forbes.

Noel was born in San Francisco on December 25th, 1948. He earned his bachelor's degree from California Polytechnic College of Engineering in 1971 and worked as a laser-fusion design engineer at Lawrence-Livermore Laboratory until his vision and passion for music started him down a new path. As a musician and an avid audiophile who loved "gear", Noel was driven to find new ways of improving his system's sound without breaking the bank. By experimenting with different types and methods of winding speaker wire, he discovered that wires of different construction produced higher quality audio performance than the lamp wire commonly used.

Monster Cable Products, Inc. was born in a San Francisco garage in 1978. Here, Noel created his first Monster Cable® with almost no money. The results thrilled professional musicians, recording engineers and music lovers alike. Monster has become one of the biggest, bestknown brand names in consumer electronics, and the world. The company, through Noel's leadership, has created an industry of highperformance consumer electronics accessories under a breadth of brands including Monster Cable®, Monster Power®, Monster Mobile®, Monster Performance Car¿, Monster Game®, Monster Music, Monster Computer®, M¿Design®, Monster Central® and even Monster Mints®.

The company holds over 200 U.S. and international patents and offers more than 4,000 products in more than 100 countries worldwide, including high-performance power conditioners, many of which have garnered esteemed Innovations Awards for pioneering vision and design. Last year, Noel launched Monster Music, fulfilling a life long dream to bring high quality music to his customers. Monster Music titles cover all popular genres. However, unlike a music label that signs artists, Monster Music is mainly working with other labels to produce High Definition SuperDisc¿ versions of their top artists and top releases, often at the same time as the label's regular CD release.

In 2004, Noel joined forces with the San Francisco 49ers to name the stadium known as Candlestick Park to "Monster Park¿." The stadium has a rich history of accomplishment for football and baseball fans.

Putting the "Monster" name on the local football stadium is only the latest and biggest display of Monster Attitude, the slogan driving everything from Monster's corporate culture to the explosion of new product lines.