Joseph M Segel

Joseph M. Segel, a Delray Beach Florida resident who founded the QVC shopping network, died Saturday December 21 2019 at age 88. Segel graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1951. He went on at the age of 20 to become the youngest member of the faculty of the Wharton School, teaching Marketing 101 and 102 while running his first significant business, The Advertising Specialty Institute. That business, which evolved into National Business Services, Inc., was acquired by the Cohn Family Trust in 1961 and recently marked its 60th anniversary. Over the past half century, Segel has founded more than 20 different other companies - as diverse as publishing, minting, photography, aviation, software, hospitality and television broadcasting. In 1986, Segel noted the success of the pioneering home shopping program, Home Shopping Network. After watching the primitive nature of its programming at that time, he immediately recognized that televised home shopping could be made significantly more appealing in a number of ways. So he then started QVC Network (standing for Quality-Value-Convenience). Within three months after starting the company, Segel raised over $20 million in an IPO. Segel retired as chairman of QVC in 1993, and he continued to be an executive consultant to QVC management until 2013. He still retains the title of Founder and Chairman Emeritus of QVC. In his addition to his son Alan Segel, of Newtown Square, Pa., he is survived by son Marvin Segel, of New York City, and step-daughter Sandy Stern of Delray Beach; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.