Staff expanded with 19 new hires: Sweetwater Sound.

SWEETWATER SOUND of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has created 19 new positions, expanding its sales staff with 16 new sales engineers, one new sales assistant, a new studio engineer for the Sweetwater Productions recording studio, and a new kitchen manager. The new jobs are part of Sweetwater's expansion as the company moves to its new $30 million campus on US 30 West.

Sales Engineer Randy Akins comes to Sweetwater from Beaufort, South Carolina, with a wealth of knowledge about music retailing. He has been in the business since 1978 and was most recently the owner of his own music store and chief engineer of his own commercial recording studio. He is a graduate of the audio engineering program at Columbia College in Chicago. Sales Engineer Joe Gilder is a native of Yazoo City, Mississippi, and comes to Sweetwater as a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University with a Bachelor's degree in the recording industry. Along with his passion for music, Gilder has also done missionary work in Kenya.

Sales Engineer Matthew Kamar comes from Palmdale, California, where he owned his own commercial studio, Darkshore Records. He studied engineering at Future Rhythm in San Jose. Sales Engineer Carson McClain is a Lansing, Michigan, native and a graduate of Lansing Community College. He has spent the past several years with a computer company in the Lansing area involved with Apple system design as it relates to audio applications. He also coordinated the electronic music stage at the Detroit Music Festival.

Sales Engineer Nick Meade has an Associate's degree in recording engineering from McNally Smith School of Music in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is a Mishawaka, Indiana, native and comes to Fort Wayne after serving a stint in sales at Music 123, a division of Woodwind and Brasswind of South Bend.

Sales Engineer Phil Selman is a Madison, Wisconsin, native who recently graduated from the Madison Media Institute, where he also served as a student tutor. Most recently he worked at the Irving Young Auditorium at UW-Whitewater helping to produce live shows and audio/visual presentations.

Sales Engineer Matt Blankenship joins Sweetwater as a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University. He is a native of Brentwood, Tennessee, in the Nashville area. He has worked at Bigger Dog Studios in Nashville with acts like Emerson Drive and Terry Clark.

Sales Engineer Rob Boyd is a South Bend, Indiana, native and holds a Bachelor's degree from Full Sail School of Media, consisting of a double major in recording arts and entertainment business management.

Sales Engineer Ron Daniel comes from Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he was a senior pastor and music director of a large church that he helped to establish. He also has run his own studio. Prior to his career in the ministry he was a guitarist and singer for the metal band Viking, touring extensively and cutting two albums, one of which he also produced.

Sales Engineer Steve DiMaggio hails from Jackson, New Jersey, where he owned his own studio and produced a number of CDs for local and regional bands. He was also a manager with Freehold Music in the New Jersey town of the same name.

Sales Engineer Luke Herian is a graduate of the University of Nebraska in Kearney, is hometown. He grew up in a musical family, and both his mother and grandmother played in a touring band. He has been freelancing the past two years, recording bands in his own studio.

Sales Engineer Kurt Martin served for four years at One Music Corp. in Nashville as a Pro Tools editor and engineer. He holds an Associate's degree from Murray State and a certificate in recording technologies from The Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Tempe, Arizona. He is a native of Kirbyton, Kentucky.

Sales Engineer John McCormick is a seasoned entertainer, having performed for well over a decade in the south Florida and Key West areas. He has a Bachelor's degree in applied voice and piano from Westminster College in Pennsylvania. He joins Sweetwater from Cape Coral, Florida. Sales Engineer Jonathan Sinclair comes to Sweetwater from Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a recent graduate of Full Sail Real World Education in Orlando, Florida.

Sales Engineer Derek Senestraro comes to Sweetwater from Laguna Hills, California, where he most recently served as a worship pastor. He has a Bachelor of Music degree in performance from California State Fullerton and ran a music instruction school with more than 500 students. Sales Engineer Stephen Smalley comes to Sweetwater from Flint, Michigan, where he was the operations manager of the Flint Guitar Center. He holds an Associate's degree in recording technology from McNally Smith in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Sales Assistant Beth Yurosko is a Fort Wayne native and graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington, where she majored in telecommunications. She was most recently a customer service representative with Centennial Wireless; prior to that she worked with both Manpower and Kelly Services. Studio Engineer John McKinney is a recent graduate of the Telecommunications program at Ball State and joins Sweetwater after a nine-week internship. He will focus on night and weekend recording sessions for local musical artists and bands.

Jan Vardaman, an Indiana native, is Sweetwater's first kitchen manager. He studied Culinary Arts at Ivy Tech and worked as sous chef at the Summit Club in Fort Wayne for several years. He will manage the kitchen and food service at the new Sweetwater facility.

"Sweetwater has been growing at an incredible rate," said Chuck Surack, Sweetwater founder and president. "That growth shows no signs of slowing down, and our recruitment efforts, made possible in part by the greatly expanded size of our new facility, will continue far into the future as the company continues to move forward."