PEAVEY NAMED 'PERSON OF THE YEAR' BY THE MUSIC TRADES

Respected music products industry journal The Music Trades has named Peavey Electronics Corporation founder Hartley Peavey its Person of the Year. The publication made the announcement in its April 2005 issue.

"Hartley has adapted his enterprise to thrive in a changing world," writes Brian Majeski, editor of The Music Trades, "successfully riding the booms of the past four decades but artfully dodging the busts. Anyone looking for the secrets to long-term success [should] make a thorough case study of Hartley's approach to business."

The Music Trades praised Hartley for his commitment to product innovations, citing his "boundless enthusiasm for creating products that will bring a smile to a musician's face," and what Hartley calls "stickability," the persistence and endurance necessary to hone an idea into success.

"I'm in this business for one reason," Hartley asserts. " I love music. I wake up every day to new challenges and with new ideas to pursue, all in the interest of making the art of creating music a more enjoyable experience. I appreciate this recognition from The Music Trades very much."

Hartley Peavey began his company 40 years ago to inject quality, craftsmanship and value back into the music and sound products market, which became diluted after numerous conglomerates bought into the industry, ramped up production and raised prices during the 1960s and '70s.

"People kept saying, 'I wish someone would build good gear for a fair price,'" Hartley remembers. "That sounded like a good idea to me."

Hartley turned that idea into one of the music industry's most influential success stories. With a meager $8,000, Hartley established his company in a small room above his father's music store in 1965, building one guitar amplifier per week. In the ensuing years—and with the help of his innovations in guitar amplifiers, P.A. sound systems, guitars and eventually computer-based audio networking—Hartley would expand his company's reach to 136 countries around the world.

At 40, Peavey is the most vertically integrated private corporation in the musical instrument and sound equipment industry, and Hartley engages his imagination with a 27-facility engineering and manufacturing enterprise. With a continuing commitment to research & development, Peavey leads the industry in numbers of patents and trademarks and produces more than 2,000 products.

"After four decades in business, Hartley's enthusiasm for the industry remains undiminished," adds Majeski. "He's still at it and can lay claim to being the industry's longest-running CEO."