Our Leadership

Ron Japinga

Chief Executive Officer

Ron Japinga joined Guitar Center as the Executive Vice President of Supply Chain in 2014, and was appointed to Chief Executive Officer in 2016. Prior to working at Guitar Center, Mr. Japinga was VP, DMM at Macy's from 1984 to 1996. From 1996 through 2001, he was VP GMM at DFS. He held positions at Kohl's from 2001 through 2006, including Divisional Manager and VP. From 2006 through 2014, Mr. Japinga worked at West Marine as EVP, Merchandising/Planning and Supply Chain.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/ron-japinga/4/341/852 Ron Japinga linkedin profile (opens in new window)

Rich Hoalst

EVP, Chief Customer Officer

Rich Hoalst is Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer for the Guitar Center Company. He oversees Guitar Center Corporate Marketing and eCommerce for all brands Company-wide, creating a seamless consumer journey. With more than 25 years as a global, multi-channel executive with an extensive background in retail merchandising and eCommerce across iconic brands, Rich has a successful track record of developing an elevated retail experience, both physical and digital, that serve consumers and drive financial performance. Prior to his role with the Company, he was Senior Vice President – Pharmacy, Drugstore, Beauty, General Merchandise, Health & Wellness at H-E-B, a privately held supermarket chain with stores throughout Texas and northeast Mexico where he reinvented the non-food businesses and created a health & wellness strategy. Rich also held leadership roles at Nike, where he oversaw the entire digital commerce for all 21 commerce-enabled European countries as well as Merchandising & Financial Planning, eCommerce, at Nike, North America. Earlier in his career Rich served as Vice President of Planning, Allocation & Market Solutions for Kohls, as well as Vice President/Divisional Merchandise Manager, Kids at Fred Meyer.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richard-hoalst Rich Hoalst linkedin profile (opens in new window)

Wayne Colwell

EVP, Retail Stores

Wayne Colwell joined Guitar Center as the Senior Vice President of Stores in March 2015. Mr. Colwell has over 30 years of retail experience in the supermarket industry. He was most recently a store operations executive with Ralph's Supermarkets in Southern California, which is a division of Kroger.

Additionally, Mr. Colwell is a passionate guitar player and collector who will use his expertise in retail best practices to bring a fresh outside perspective to how Guitar Center runs its stores.

Karl Bracken

EVP, Merchandising & Private Brands

Karl Bracken joined Guitar Center as the Executive Vice President of Merchandising & Private Brands in 2019. Prior to working at Guitar Center, Mr. Bracken held numerous positions in Merchandising, Supply Chain and Pay & Benefits at Target Corporation from 2003 to 2019, including Senior Vice President, Merchandise Planning and Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Transformation. From 1997 to 2002, Mr. Bracken was Associate, Technology, Media & Telecom Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan and Bear Stearns.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/karl-bracken-4786ab Tim Martin linkedin profile (opens in new window)

Anne Buchanan

SVP, Chief Human Resources Officer

Anne Buchanan is the Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer for the organization. She assumed the role in June 2018. Ms. Buchanan is responsible for the organization's human resources strategy and enabling Guitar Center to attract, motivate, develop and retain a diverse and inclusive workforce. Ms. Buchanan joined the company from Global Brands Group (GBG), where she led the human resources strategy for the fashion and retail business which included BCBG, BCBGeneration, bebe, Herve Leger, Joe's Jeans and Juicy Couture. Prior to GBG, Anne served as the SVP Human Resources for BCBG Max Azria Group, and has also served in various Human Resources roles with Smile Brands and Cadence Design Systems.

Ravi Balwada

Chief Technology Officer

As CTO, Ravi Balwada is responsible for all aspects of business technology at Guitar Center, supporting our enterprise, retail and digital platforms. He has over 20 years of experience setting technology vision, building strategy and digital products in retail, eCommerce & cloud businesses. Balwada served as Vice President for Digital Transformation & Innovation Labs at Best Buy, where he helped set strategic direction for the services and omni-channel-related initiatives for the company. Balwada has served as General Manager for Cloud at BMC Software and led Cloud engineering & operations at Oracle and Sum Total Systems, where he helped develop industry-leading technology to enable cloud-based enterprise applications. Before Oracle, Balwada was vice president at The Carlyle Group's technology Venture fund, where he focused on investments in Greater China, India and Korea. Prior to that, Balwada led eCommerce technology operations at Amazon, during its steepest growth period. Balwada brings a passionate focus to customer centricity and digital innovation in Multi-Channel Retail.

Todd Lyche

Chief Data Officer

Todd Lyche joined Guitar Center in 2007, and currently serves as Chief Data Officer. Mr. Lyche has held a number of positions with Guitar Center, including Chief Technology Officer, VP Enterprise Architecture, VP IT Infrastructure and VP Product Management. He has helped procure, design and implement several key technologies for Guitar Center, including omni-channel retail, POS web services and hybrid data center usage leveraging SaaS, private and public data centers. Prior to joining Guitar Center, Mr. Lyche held roles at startup companies DigitalInsight.com and Move.com, and he began his career working with Computer Sciences Corporation after receiving a degree in mathematics from UC Santa Barbara.

Michael Pendleton

SVP, General Counsel

Michael Pendleton joined Guitar Center in August 2005, as Senior Counsel and has served as SVP, General Counsel since August 2012. Prior to joining Guitar Center, Mr. Pendleton was an associate and later shareholder in the Corporate & Securities practice group of Jenkens & Gilchrist, P.C. from October 1997 to July 2005. Prior to joining Jenkens & Gilchrist, P.C., Mr. Pendleton was an associate with Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. in Milwaukee, WI, in its Financial Institutions practice group. Mr. Pendleton graduated with honors with an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College in 1989, and graduated with a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1992. Mr. Pendleton also is a professional musician with work that has appeared on cable and network television series and commercials.

Jeff Gottlieb

President of Music & Arts

Jeff Gottlieb is the President of Music & Arts, Guitar Center's specialty retailer focused on band & orchestra instruments for sale and rental. Mr. Gottlieb assumed the role in April 2019, and is responsible for overseeing the Music & Arts business, which includes over 200+ retail stores, 120+ educational representatives and 300+ affiliate locations. Mr. Gottlieb has extensive experience leading complex retail operations, including managing companies through strong growth initiatives. Prior to joining Music & Arts, Mr. Gottlieb held executive positions at Sur La Table and Jockey International.

Mohit Parasher

President of Business Solutions

Mohit Parasher joins The Guitar Center Company with 28 years of leadership experience in consumer and B2B products and services across the U.S., Europe, Asia and Middle East Africa. In his role as President of Business Solutions, Parasher will be driving both top and bottom line growth with his deep understanding of the audio/visual industry and its complexities. He is also responsible for overseeing the integration process of future acquisitions.

Parasher most recently served as the President of Professional Solutions Division at Harman International, a Samsung Company. Previously, Parasher had a long and successful international career at Sony as Senior Vice President of Marketing for Sony's $8 billion consumer business in Europe, managing marketing, product management, eCommerce, retail, customer service and commercial relationships with large accounts. Moreover, Parasher held several leadership roles at Sony across Europe and Asia, and served on the boards of both Sony Germany and Sony Europe.