Sweetwater Fills Two Key Management Positions

Sweetwater recently hired two new high-level employees, sales manager Doug Hills, and category manager for guitars Jay Piccirillo.

A native of Northern California, Doug Hills started with Guitar Center’s store operations team in Seattle in 1999. Over the next 14 years he held numerous jobs including sales person, sales manager of multiple locations, operations manager, store manager of multiple locations, district manager of the Northwest, and for the last five years district manager of New York and Connecticut, including Guitar’s Center’s flagship Manhattan store.

Jay Piccirillo is a lifelong musician and home studio owner. After serving in the Army (including being recalled in support of Desert Storm), he earned a Bachelors Degree in Music Performance w/emphasis in Business from the University of Massachusetts, which included an internship with Yamaha Drums. He became the product manager at Yamaha guitars, then the buyer for amps & effects at Musician's Friend. As a writer, he reviewed products and CD's for Bass Frontiers magazine. 

After discussing bass products during a trip with Fender, a new position was created and he became the first person in the company's history to focus solely on the bass category. In his 10 years as the sr. product manager for bass amplification, his team developed successful products including the Rumble and Bassman lines. While in charge of bass guitars he revamped the American Standard and Deluxe lines along with the 50th Anniversary Jazz Bass and numerous artist models.

Sweetwater founder and president Chuck Surack said, “With the hiring of Doug Hills and Pay Piccirrillo, Sweetwater continues to strengthen its capacity to manage and expand its world class sales force, and to further enhance its position as an industry leader in guitar sales.”