Fender Names Roback President

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC) has announced that Bob Roback has joined FMIC as president and has also joined the company’s Board of Directors. Roback has extensive experience as an entrepreneur and executive in the music business, overseeing the growth and development of many consumer experiences in digital music and converting those experiences into successful businesses.

Roback will have a wide scope of responsibility including overseeing the development of Fender’s emerging digital strategy aimed at deeply engaging musicians and music fans more broadly. Roback will also establish a new Los Angeles office in order to expand the company’s consumer marketing and digital capabilities.

“Bob brings an impressive set of skills and a track record of success that is a terrific complement to Fender’s growth strategy,” said FMIC’s interim CEO and board member Scott Gilbertson. “We are looking forward to fully developing the incredible potential of the Fender brand.”

“I’m excited and humbled to have the opportunity to contribute to the future of such an iconic, revered music brand and to develop opportunities for both musicians and fans to connect more closely with it,” said Roback.

Roback was most recently the CEO of Dashbox, a cloud-based workflow management system for music licensing, and Managing Director of The Media Farm, a media company focused on owning and managing an IP portfolio for multi-platform exploitation. Prior to Dashbox and The Media Farm, he founded LAUNCH Media, Inc. and served as its president.

LAUNCH transformed the consumer music discovery experience online, and Roback led the company through its initial public offering in 1999 and then its acquisition by Yahoo! in 2001. Following the sale, he served as vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Music, where he led the company's global music operations and built it into the Internet's most popular music destination.

Prior to LAUNCH, Roback was an associate practicing corporate and securities law at the international firm of Mayer, Brown & Platt. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School and his B.S. in Economics from The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania.