Yamaha Corporation of America
Jim Funada has proudly served the music products industry in several important ways over the last 40 years. He began his career by working for the Yamaha Corp. in keyboard retailing. Beginning in the late 1960s, Jim oversaw the Yamaha school programs among keyboard dealers in the San Francisco Bay...
Tetsuya Takagi served as Executive Vice President of Yamaha International Corporation (currently Yamaha Corporation of America) and worked for Yamaha Corporation in Japan holding several important positions during his long and successful career. Mr. Takagi received scholarship from Yamaha while in...
Avery Burdette, the product manager for Yamaha Corporation of America, began his long love of music pushing down the pedals of his mother's organ as a small child while his mother played. Avery played trombone in school bands before forming a Southern-Rock style group in high school. He also worked...
Ed Boyer began working for Yamaha Corporation of America in 1983 with a focus on the band and orchestral products. With a strong background in retail, Ed developed long-lasting partnerships with dealers while working with them to gain relationships with area school directors. Yamaha designed...
DeDe Guth joined the customer service team at Yamaha’s band instrument factory in Michigan in 1980. There she learned first hand the company’s philosophy and attention to customer satisfaction. Ten years later she was offered a job in Elkhart, Indiana to work at the Gemeinhardt Flute Company, where...
Craig Knudsen cut his teeth on the industry as many people who have come to service in leadership positions. He started working for the Wurlitzer Company during college. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he took a job with Yamaha and focused on increasing the number of music makers...
Richard O’Donnell was vice president of Yamaha Corporation of America at a very historic time in the company’s growth and development, the 1970s. Richard worked on several projects including managing the operations for the Everett Piano Plant in Michigan, which Yamaha purchased to expand its piano...
Ed Rizzuto was surrounded by music his entire life. As a young boy he started playing trombone, which he continued throughout high school and into his military service in the early 1950s. After teaching orchestra as a school band director for several years, Ed joined the music industry as a...
Athan Billias had a rather impressive vantage point to witness the growth and development of the synthesizer in the late 1970s and early 80s. After performing as a professional musician in New England for several years, Athan found himself working on the landmark M1 keyboard as an engineer for KORG...
Robert Heller worked in the music industry as a teenager in retail and discovered that he was drawn to the industry with his passion and love for music and music making. Bob was hired by Yamaha Corporation of America in the piano division, where he worked for 20 years before transferring to the...