Chris Martin IV annonce qu'il va prendre sa retraite

The Morning Call a écrit:Martin Guitar CEO Chris Martin IV announces retirement
By Anthony Salamone
Jul 16, 2020 at 1:36 PM

Martin guitars have been revered for generations and played by legendary musicians like Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Eric Clapton to newer headliners such as John Mayer and Ed Sheeran.
The sixth-generation leader of global guitar maker C.F. Martin & Co. Inc., Chris Martin IV, brought the stringed instruments to the forefront of the music industry in his three-plus decades running the privately held company.
That’s about to end: Martin, who recently turned 65, said Thursday via an announcement to employees and vendors that he will retire in July 2021 as CEO. He plans to remain board chairman, and the family ownership will continue.
Martin said the retirement will also coincide with his stepping down as chairman of NAMM, the National Association of Music Merchants.
“I’ve spent over 40 years in my family business and what a ride it’s been,” Martin said in a statement released by the company, declining an interview request on the retirement announcement. “Now I’ve reached the point where it’s time for me to move into the role of Executive Chairman.
“I am confident in the current leadership team, because I know they love the company as much as I do and I will be working closely with them through this transition.”
Also Thursday, the company said Jacqueline Renner, Martin guitar president, who joined the company in 2015, announced she will retire Oct. 1, 2021. The company has retained an outside firm, Hudson Gain Corp., to conduct a search for a new CEO-president.
This could mean a break in a Martin family member running day-to-day operations at the fabled guitar maker, which was begun in 1833 by German immigrant Christian Frederick Martin Sr. But it has happened before: C. Hugh Bloom Jr., ran the company for several years during the 1982 resignation of Martin’s father, Frank Herbert Martin.
Martin took over as chairman and CEO when he was 31, according to a 1986 Morning Call story.
Martin’s parents divorced when he was 3, and he spent his childhood years in New Jersey. Not growing up around the company and the guitar business might have been an advantage, he said then, because it gave him a fresh perspective on the company and its goals.
He returned to Nazareth at age 18, and joined the family business after earning a degree in business administration from Boston University. He was named assistant to the president in 1982, and vice president of marketing in 1985 before becoming CEO the next year.

“I’ve dedicated myself to this,” he said in the 1986 story, soon after the company board named him chairman. “It’s what I am. I’m C. F. Martin, and it’s my job to make sure the Martin Guitar Co. is a viable, ongoing concern.”
He succeeded his grandfather, C.F. Martin III, who played an active role in running the family business until his death in June 1986 at the age of 91.
Chris Martin also took over when the company, known for generations for its quality instruments and reputation, had been struggling financially. Hard times at the company began in 1980, with the guitar boom of earlier decades ending. The U.S. economy was headed for a recession, and cheap electronic synthesizer keyboards were becoming the rage.
Craig Thatcher of Coopersburg, a bandleader who serves as a subcontractor to Martin Guitar, said bringing the acoustic instrument on the show “MTV Unplugged” beginning in the early 1990s led to the company’s resurgence. Soon, celebrity musicians such as Eric Clapton, who appeared in a 1992 “Unplugged” special, began promoting the instrument.
“Chris really turned that around under his leadership and guidance with ‘MTV Unplugged,” said Thatcher, who is Martin Guitar’s “international clinician and ambassador,” according to his website. “It really turned the page on acoustic guitars, and they haven’t really looked back.”
The recent decades have seen Martin Guitar emerge stronger; the company today employs nearly 500 people in the Lehigh Valley — nearly all in the Nazareth area.

Scott Brodt of Nazareth Music Center said Martin has never been an exemplary guitar player. But that didn’t stop him from surrounding himself with creative, innovative and thoughtful people who knew how to build a better acoustic guitar.
“He was always one step ahead and built, literally, the finest folk guitar in the world,” said Brodt, who co-owns the Main Street music store and sells Martins.
In June 2019, Martin told The Morning Call the company was building a 200,000-square-foot distribution center and warehouse at the Chrin Commerce Centre near Route 33 in Tatamy. He called it the company’s largest single corporate expenditure in its history.
Martin said earlier this week the project is still on target to be opened in 2021, and the climate-control facility will be a place for the company to showcase its woods and finished instruments to “really good customers” as well as dealers and distributors.

CF Martin & Co a écrit:President/CEO
Company

C.F. Martin & Co., Inc.

Founded in 1833, C. F. Martin is a six-generation family-owned company and the world’s oldest maker of guitars. Leveraging a unique combination of a hand-crafted tradition and modern manufacturing disciplines, Martin & Co. enjoy an unsurpassed reputation for excellence. Its instruments and strings are sought after by Grammy Award winners, discerning amateurs, and collectors alike. The company produces instruments accessible to musicians for under $1,000, as well as limited edition instruments valued in excess of $100,000.

The current Chairman and CEO Chris Martin IV assumed leadership of the company in 1986. Since that time the Company has grown significantly while maintaining a commitment to the highest level of quality. Surpassing the company’s commitment to quality is the Company’s commitment to the employees and the rich culture that has developed over the 187+ years.

Location
The position is based at the Company headquarters in Nazareth, PA

Reporting
The President/CEO reports directly to the newly created Executive Chairman role and manages a total staff of six direct reports who represent the remainder of the organization’s employees.

Overview
The President/CEO will direct a diverse organization providing leadership for the Company working closely with the Executive Chairman on strategic direction. The President/CEO is ultimately responsible for translating the strategy and managing all of the Company’s day-to-day activities.

The President/CEO will take an active role in all areas of the Company including: Manufacturing, Sales and Marketing, Product Development, Finance, Human Resources, Business Development, Customer Service, and Community Relations. Direct reports to this position include the Chief Financial Officer, VP Product Management, Vice President Human Resources, In-House Legal Counsel/Corporation’s Secretary, Vice President Global Manufacturing/ Operations, and Vice President Global Marketing/Sales.
[...]

Coriolan92 a écrit:Etrange, on ne demande pas au futur President/CEO d'y connaître quoi que ce soit en guitares ...

CF Martin & Co a écrit:Connects personally with the power and value of music in the lives of people

tazzrecord a écrit:Voilà une annonce étonnante : Bob Taylor et Kurt Listug co-fondateurs de Taylor Guitars en 1974 ont décidé de monter une ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), un plan d'actionnariat transférant 100% des parts de Taylor Guitars aux salariés qui depuis des années contribuent au succès de la marque.

Et ca c’est la classe !!

mehoul a écrit:
Si c'est moi, Martin ne produira plus que des gauchères (et une poignée de droitières pour faire rentrer un peu de dollars)
etc.

philippe al a écrit:

mehoul a écrit:
Si c'est moi, Martin ne produira plus que des gauchères (et une poignée de droitières pour faire rentrer un peu de dollars)
etc.

On notera que chez Martin tous les modèles (principaux) sont proposés / possibles en gaucher  et ça c'est Top !!

C'est loin d'être le cas chez les autres....

Fitzy (UMGF) a écrit:After further research it seem's Martin were very close in the mid-nineties to releasing a D28-PM. The guitar would have had an Abbey Road inspired inlay with Paul walking barefoot across the headstock, sliced and unsliced red and green apples as fingerboard position markers, and a small silver beetle on the heel cap. The design would be stripped of any reference to ivory, bone, ivoroid, or tortoise coloured material in keeping with Paul and Linda's strong position on vegetarianism and environmentalism. The plan was to offer 910 guitars after the Beatles song "One After 909". To support left-handed players, lefty's would be offered the standard price whilst righties would have to pay a small surcharge. The Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts was proposed as the charitable beneficiary (which would have been great because I was born in Liverpool and that was my school growing up).
Unfortunately, the Beatles Anthology Project came into full swing and Paul's camp was too busy to devote any fuller consideration. I would personally love Martin Guitars to approach Paul and his team one final time as the design of the guitar is great and Martin have always played a part in his career.
[Info extracted with thanks from Martin Guitar Masterpieces by Dick Boak]

C.F. Martin & Co. announced today that Thomas Ripsam has been appointed the company's new Chief Executive Officer. Effective June 14, 2021, Mr. Ripsam succeeds longtime Chairman and CEO, Christian Frederick Martin IV, who assumes the role of Executive Chairman.

[...]

Chris Martin hands the reins to Mr. Ripsam, who, over the course of his 25+ year career, first at Booz Allen & Hamilton, and most recently as a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, took on leadership responsibilities for growing the business, developing service offerings and managing teams. He has worked with consumer goods companies, specialty retailers, technology solutions providers, Fortune 50 companies and family owned businesses, helping to drive profitable growth, enhancing digital capabilities, improving customer experience and engagement, and generating hundreds of millions in incremental value for his clients.

An avid guitar player, Mr. Ripsam collects fretted instruments and even took a sabbatical in 2019 to work with a luthier to learn about the process of building acoustic guitars – in the style of Martin. He holds an MBA in Strategy & Finance from Columbia Business School and a BA in Business Administration and Management from Reutlingen University in Germany and Middlesex University in London.

"I have admired Martin guitars since I was a teenager," said Ripsam. "My first real acoustic was a Martin guitar and it has been a close companion to me since.  Martin has always been an iconic fretted instrument builder and I have a deep appreciation for the company's continued focus on quality, craftsmanship and innovation, as well as its unique culture and history. I am honored and humbled to join the Martin family and to carry on the legacy of Chris Martin and his predecessors."

pierrou a écrit:En voyant des vieilles photos de l 'atelier on constate que très tôt , il  y a déjà plusieurs "employés" , et que le fondateur n 'avait pas l 'intention d'être artisan luthier tout seul mais bien de fonder une fabrique d 'instruments .
Il y a suffisamment d'ouvrier qualifiés dans l 'usine pour que le directeur n 'ai pas besoin de connaitre à fond une guitare . Savoir gérer et bien s 'entourer .