FROM THE TOP JOHN FULTON I CONN SELMER
INTERVIEWED BY KATIE KAILUS
HOW DO YOU START YOUR DAY? My son recently encouraged me to start going to the gym more regularly. I wake up at 4:50 a.m., looking every bit like I just rolled out of bed, and head straight there. I lift weights for 30 minutes, then spend another 30 minutes on the treadmill before heading home to get ready. Breakfast is always the same: Quaker Oatmeal Squares with blue- berries, raspberries and bananas. I leave for the office at 7:15 a.m. and start work around 7:45. Most mornings, around 8:15 or so, I try to walk around the office. I really enjoy this time because it gives me a chance to check in with everyone and hear how they’re doing. I like hearing about weekend plans and comparing BBQ recipes, but more than that, I think it’s important to keep up with what’s going on in our team’s personal lives so we can celebrate milestones and be there for each other when someone needs support. CAN YOU SHARE WITH READERS A LITTLE BIT ON YOUR BACKGROUND AND HOW YOU GOT TO THE ROLE OF CEO OF CONN SELMER? I got to the role of CEO through equal parts hard work and luck. My parents got tired of the snow in Maine and moved to Arizona when I was four. Fortunately, we moved to a great town called Mesa, which I later discovered had an extraordinary music program. I started playing the vio- lin in fourth grade mostly to get out of class, but I had a dedicated substitute teacher named Sujoy who would stay after school to help any student who wanted extra practice. She helped me learn to love music and playing an instrument. By high school, I was studying with a professor at Ari - zona State and working toward a scholarship in music education. The summer before college, my best friend recruited me to clean used rental instruments at a music store in Mesa. Later, I pursued a career as a road rep and realized I loved the business side of music. That led me to change my degree to finance, which I completed before earning an MBA. My career has taken a bit of a winding path through two different music retailers and several manufacturers. I’ve held roles ranging from instrument cleaner to road rep, district sales and sales management, and most recently, at Conn Selmer, I worked in global procurement and opera- tions. At every step, I focused on learning as much as pos- sible and was fortunate to have mentors who guided me and kept me honest.
YOU TOOK OVER AS CEO A FEW MONTHS AGO, WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF YOUR FIRST PRIORITIES WHILE IN THIS ROLE? My main priority is to simplify the business and focus on what we do best: manufacturing and distribution. We want to make the best musical instruments in the world and deliver them when our customers need them. Doing those two things well will create opportunities to further invest in our Division of Education and artist programs, strengthen- ing support for musicians, music educators and students around the world. HOW HAVE GLOBAL ECONOMIC ISSUES AND TARIFFS IMPACTED CONN SELMER? Tariffs have impacted the entire music industry, creat- ing supply chain disruptions and raising costs for import- ed goods, raw materials and components. As the largest band and orchestra manufacturer in the U.S., we feel these pressures too, not only on raw materials for our U.S.-made products, but we have also long managed tariff pressures from other countries on our exported U.S. products. Our focus is on making the best instruments in the world. Other than saxophones, all of our professional instruments are and will continue to be made in the U.S. At the same time, we’re also building a 350,000-square-foot, state- of-the-art manufacturing facility in Qidong, China, where we will build industry-leading, price-competitive products. We’re excited for this facility to be completed toward the end of 2026. AS CEO, HOW DO YOU PLAN TO BALANCE INNOVATION WITH CONN SELMER’S HISTORY AND LEGACY? When I think of balance, I picture two objects on oppo- site ends of a spectrum offsetting each other’s weight. For Conn Selmer, it’s not about balancing legacy and innova- tion separately but about bringing them together. Innova- tion has always been part of our history. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first trumpet sold by Vincent Bach. Back then, his new trumpets combined incredible sound with superior playability and quickly became the most sought-after trumpets in the world. At the International Trumpet Guild (ITG) in Salt Lake City this summer, we celebrated that milestone while in- troducing an entirely new line of C trumpets. We’re con- tinuing to see many of today’s top trumpet artists retiring their historic instruments in favor of these modern Bach
36 I MUSIC INC. I NOVEMBER 2025
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