FORT WAYNE, IN — Sweetwater, the No. 1 online retailer of music instruments and pro audio gear in the U.S., has appointed David Stewart to the new position of executive VP and chief marketing officer. Sweetwater founder / president Chuck Surack said, “With the exceptional growth of our company over the years and our plans for continued growth, I have decided to add a fourth senior executive position. This new position reflects the vital importance of our marketing department to our growth and success. David Stewart, who will report directly to me, along with COO John Hopkins, and CSO Jeff Radke, has impacted the company in so many ways it would be impossible to name them all. Simply put, he knows Sweetwater through and through and I am very honored that he has agreed to take on this tremendous responsibility.”
David Stewart joined Sweetwater in 1992 as a sales engineer before becoming service department manager. Under his leadership, the service department became an authorized service center for most of the company’s product lines.
In 1998, he became creative marketing director and helped drive the publishing of the company’s first catalogs, including the industry-standard ProGear Directory. He also oversaw the initial versions of the Sweetwater website (including its e-commerce component), and developed a partner marketing strategy with manufacturers and vendors.
Stewart returned to the sales department as a manager in early 2001 and was made senior VP of sales in 2013. He played a key role in the expansion of the department to more than 300 sales engineers, and helped lead the training and education of new sales engineers, and kept the entire sales department current on new developments in music technology.
Over the years, he has been a constant advisor and contributor in the development of the company’s marketing strategies. His leadership has contributed to annual sales growth of between 20 and 30 percent over the years.
He has extensive customer service, sales, and technical experience, including a diverse background as a touring musician and live sound/recording engineer. He is an instructor in live sound production at the music technology program at Indiana University/Purdue University Fort Wayne.
David began his career as a musician in the late ’70s, and by the early ’80s was part of a regional touring act. In each circumstance he quickly became the most technically savvy person on the tour, which evolved into his becoming a touring live sound engineer. In 1987 he left touring to open a recording studio in the Louisville area, which he still owns and runs under different management. He studied electronics at the University of Louisville and worked in two different local music stores before moving to Fort Wayne to work at Sweetwater.
