Sweetwater, the world’s leading music technology and instrument retailer, has announced the promotion of Mike Clem to Chief Growth Officer. In this newly created executive position, Clem will focus on protecting Sweetwater’s immense momentum by overseeing and implementing strategic growth plans in all areas of the business to drive continued growth. He will develop a new division of the company, a research and engineering team, specifically devoted to growth projects. This new division of the company will identify, test, and measure growth metrics.
Clem has been instrumental to Sweetwater’s double-digit growth year after year. As announced in January of this year, the company surpassed $1.43B in sales and facilitated four million orders in 2021. In his new role, Clem will support Chief Executive Officer John Hopkins to oversee strategic growth plans for Sweetwater, including developing partnerships with each division of the company to identify and accelerate growth opportunities.
“Mike is a natural choice for this role, having overseen tremendous growth in our eCommerce development and digital marketing strategy for the past 18+ years. I’m confident that his vision, leadership, and passion for excellence will help guide and bolster Sweetwater’s growth in the coming years,” said Hopkins.
When Clem joined Sweetwater in 2003, he oversaw three employees and the website garnered $4M in sales. Since then, he has driven explosive growth in the eCommerce and digital marketing efforts. Clem has a clear understanding of how to harness the power of Sweetwater’s Sales Engineers, a highly-trained world class team of music gear experts dedicated to building relationships with customers, and combine that with innovation to drive the company’s “human first” model into a digital future.
“It’s been an honor to be a part of such tremendous growth at Sweetwater over the last almost two decades,” said Clem. “I look forward to leading the continued strategic growth of the company as we remain focused on our unmatched commitment to our customers.”
Clem is a graduate of Purdue University. His background in eCommerce began in the earliest days of the internet and includes many notable retail brands. Mike is a lifelong musician and a Fort Wayne native. He is active in his church and community, along with his wife, Jill and their four children. Sweetwater looks forward to continued success with Clem’s focus pointed squarely at growth in his new role.
