Bill Schultz

William Charles Schultz (July 30, 1926 – September 21, 2006) was an American engineer and business executive who was CEO of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation from 1981 to 2005. Schultz is credited as the "man who saved Fender" for overseeing the company's return to profitability and expansion after its sale by CBS in 1985.

Biography Schultz was born on July 30, 1926 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Before his engineering and corporate career, he played saxophone and clarinet professionally and worked in musical instrument repair. After serving in the United States Air Force during World War II, Schultz helped open the Dorn and Kirchner School of Band Instrument Repair and later owned and managed Progressive Music, a musical repair and service business in McKeesport. The NAMM Oral History Program also described Schultz as having opened his own musical instrument repair business within the Progressive Music store.

Schultz graduated as an engineer from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1965 and went to work for Bethlehem Steel in Baltimore. Schultz received his master's degree in aerospace engineering while working at Bendix Aerospace on radar tracking devices for the Apollo program. In 1971, he received an MBA from Rutgers University and began working at the CBS Corporation. The NAMM Oral History Program similarly describes Schultz as having joined Yamaha Musical Products Co. and risen to president before being recruited by CBS Musical Instruments. He retired in 2005 and was replaced by William Mendello, though he remained on the board of directors. Schultz died in 2006 of cancer.