NEW YORK, New York – George Kovacs, a lighting designer and marketer who had great influence on contemporary furniture, has died. He was 80.

Kovacs sold his own designs and represented interior designers like Ingo Maurer, Isamu Noguchi and Karim Rashid. His partnership with designer Alicia Wesner fostered the licensing of the Minka Group in 2003 to market lighting designs from the duo.

He is survived by his wife, son, two daughters and three grandchildren.