Jacqueline Renner remembers the day she got the call. It was around Thanksgiving, back in 2014. At the time, she was serving as president of Franke Consumer Products, purveyor of home and kitchen solutions, but the recruiter on the other end of the phone thought she might be a good fit for a much different position more than 800 miles away. The prospective employer? Legendary guitar maker and revered retailer to rock and roll royalty, C.F. Martin & Co., also known as Martin Guitar, nestled in quiet Northampton County.
Ironically, on the day she took that pivotal phone call, Renner was living in Music City, USA, and the Martin surname was one that was just as prevalent on the streets of Nashville as Cash, Presley or Cline. “You either have people who play Martins, or people who want to play Martins,” says Renner.
Following an initial visit to the company's home base in Nazareth, and a meeting with CEO Chris Martin IV, she was sold. Soon enough, Renner and her husband, David Craig, were Lehigh Valley bound. “Chris and I really hit it off,” Renner says. “It felt like such a great place.” Martin Guitar's new president was on the job as of May 2015.
On the surface, the leap from practicality (appliances) to performance (guitars) might not seem like a natural one. But, it appears that a curiosity about the unknown was woven into Renner's DNA from the start. The second of five children born to an Italian/German family on Long Island, Renner developed an interest in chemistry at an early age. “I love the creating in chemistry,” she says. She recalls that her parents bought her a make-your-own-perfume kit. “I was boiling rose petals in little vials. That was my perfume.” Her father started a medical gas distribution business that's still in the family today.
Although she earned her B.A. with a major in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A from New York University, the scientist in her had artistic inclinations as well. “I loved science and I loved math, but I also loved the arts,” says Renner.
Growing up, she played the clarinet, and yes, even the guitar, until the day her brother absconded with it. Still, there's no hard feelings—he plays the drums and guitar to this day, Renner says, and the purloined instrument wasn't a Martin, anyway (she pleads the fifth when asked about the brand). Plus, she never entertained the thought of making a career out of her musical ambitions. “I always loved great performance,” she explains. “I knew that wasn't inside of me. I was never that good.”
But now, working for one of the world's most respected and acclaimed instrument makers, she has a front-row seat to the rich tradition and meticulous process that has been putting guitars, mandolins and ukuleles in the hands of music's greatest maestros for centuries. It's a privilege she doesn't take for granted. “To have the opportunity to partner with Chris [Martin IV] in sustaining the legacy of the company is amazing,” Renner says.
C.F. Martin & Co.'s roots go back nearly 200 years. The company's founder was born in Saxony, Germany in 1796 and moved to New York with his family in 1833, where he set up his own guitar shop on Hudson Street. A yearning for a more bucolic setting compelled the family to make the move to Nazareth in 1838, and by the following year, all Martin guitars were built there. Now, the company employs roughly one thousand people between its facility in Nazareth and a second factory in Mexico, and Martin Guitar's customer list reads like a who's who of the music industry's power players; everyone from Jimmy Page and John Lennon to Ed Sheeran and the Avett Brothers has lovingly strummed a Martin at one time or another.
In fact, one of the benefits of Renner's job is getting the opportunity to rub elbows with the company's famous fan base. Her personal taste in music runs the gamut, from classical to rock- anything except heavy metal. She describes meeting Eric Clapton in Japan as one of the more poignant encounters she's had with a Martin musician. Vince Gill also stands out. “Such a humble soul and an awesome guitar player,” she says. Folk music icon Joan Baez is among the luminaries she hopes to connect with some day: “All I want to do, is say thank you for what you do.”
Another perk: leavin' on a jet plane... a lot. Naturally, a company with a global fan base requires a president who isn't afraid to put her passport to work. Renner's role as a Martin Guitar ambassador has taken her all over the world. “[Traveling] has been one of the greatest gifts I could have ever asked for,” she says, and cites Berlin, Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai as some of her favorite spots. Although her schedule varies, Renner estimates she spends about one week every month on the road or in the air, touching base with the company's customers and suppliers. “I'm a customer-oriented president.”
Of course, any businesswoman worth her salt knows that she has to walk the walk and not just talk the talk—or, in this case, she has to play, and not just peddle the guitar. Renner is now the proud owner of her very own Martin. It's a model 00-18, which was taken off the line in the 1960s but is now available for purchase again. It has a smaller body than the typical Martin, which makes it easier for Renner to wrap her arms around it. But you won't catch her cooing about “Trigger” or “Lucille.” This particular guitar has gone nameless thus far. Renner explains, “She's just pretty.”
Even though two years have passed since Renner joined the Martin Guitar family, she is still in awe of the high level of craftsmanship that has become the standard for each and every instrument that rolls off the assembly line. She marvels about the intense smell of wood on the factory floor; she exclaims about the finite detail on the body of the guitar. And Martin Guitar makes no mistakes—at least, no mistakes that will ever see the light of day. Renner recalls asking CEO Chris Martin what the company does with “rejects,” guitars that are deemed defective for one reason or another. His answer: “We put them to the bandsaw.” Meaning, the company would rather wind up with a pile of sawdust than a wad of cash if it prevents the release of a product that's less than perfect. It's that kind of high ideal, coupled with a dedicated and talented staff, that Renner says makes her job a breeze: “If you believe in the mission of a company and you believe in the people, the decisions are easy.”
This is a year of celebration for Martin Guitar; the company has put its stamp of approval on its two-millionth guitar. Featuring a D-45 style body, with its back and sides constructed from Brazilian rosewood, and its top crafted from Engelmann spruce and sporting decorative inlay and a timepiece motif, the instrument was unveiled at a trade show in California in January. Renner says Martin Guitar is also marking 20 years since it started selling its own treated string—because, after all, what good is a finely crafted guitar body without a set of strings just right for pickin'?
2017 is also a special year for Renner on a personal level—she and her husband are celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. They met in a Starbucks in Chicago. Now, more than two decades later, they're still loving each other, and loving life in the Lehigh Valley. Craig is retired but plays a mean clarinet. The two have 14 nieces and nephews between them, many of whom are musically inclined. “We get a lot of entertainment around the holidays,” Renner says. It's the best kind of reality for a woman who's just as comfortable talking about frets and compound dovetail neck joints with the biggest names in the music business, as she is tapping her foot along with an impromptu performance from her family.
“I specialize in audience appreciation.”
