Third Generation Armenian (Asian) Born in Argentina (Latin American). Lived in Latin America, North America, United Kingdom, worked around the world and became a US Citizen in 2018. Entrepreneur | Innovator | Global Business Leader.
He lives in Nashville, TN with his wife and three children. Cesar and his wife are fully integrated in the community, engaging in, and leading numerous philanthropic projects to better the lives of others, support music and education, and fight against poverty and sexual assault.
Today Cesar is Gibson Brand President. He identified the opportunity in 2013 when Gibson issued debt to acquire non-core assets in consumer audio. Having seen other examples of companies deviating from their core and making critical mistakes, Cesar started acquiring Gibson’s debt in 2013 and brought the investment thesis to the larger and global firm KKR. Over time, as Gibson was not able to repay their debt obligations related to consumer audio failures, KKR was able to lead the investor group to effectuate the change of control.
Since November of 2018, Cesar has been finding pioneering solutions for brand momentum, team development, product innovation, media evolution, direct to consumer shifting and profitable business growth.
In his capacity as Gibson Brand President, Cesar wears multiple hats, heading (a) the portfolio of brands which include Gibson, Epiphone, Kramer, Mesa Boogie and KRK, (b) product development and innovation, the Gibson Labs including the Innovation Lab, Sound Lab, Tone Lab and Custom Shop Murphy Lab, (c) Gibson’s cultural influence team, which includes artist and entertainment relations, PR, social media and Gibson Gives, (d) the branding and marketing teams globally, (e) the digital and physical direct to consumer strategies and experiences across channels including launching the Gibson Garage, (f) the consumer services team, and (g) Gibson Media, including Gibson TV, Gibson Publishing and Gibson Records. In his role at Gibson, he merges his business background with his life-long passion for music, guitars and especially Gibson guitars. Cesar is a custodian of Gibson and a steward of its future.
An accomplished musician, guitarist and songwriter, Cesar picked up his first guitar at the age of 10 and performs an eclectic range of music genres. Over the last 25 years he has performed and recorded with several bands in stadiums and arenas with audiences of up to 30,000 people and is an avid collector of vintage guitars, with a collection that includes over 150 guitars, most of which are Gibson guitars that are actively used in the development of the Gibson Original, Historic and Vault Collections. He is the owner of Gemini, the 1959 Les Paul known as the twin to Greeny: https://www.guitarworld.com/features/kirk-hammett-cesar-gueikian-greeny-sibling
His Gibson role melds his 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and financier, investing in companies around the world, building leadership and extended leadership matrixed teams that set conditions for success, focusing businesses on their foundational core competencies, creating compelling go to market strategies that generate profitable growth – top line, gross and net margins – as well bringing troubled companies back into growth.
He has completed three large successful exits including his first +$1.5bn exit in 2021 related to a telecommunications company he co-founded in 2014.
Cesar is the founder Octave, his newest family investment vehicle with investments in music, entertainment, food and beverage, real estate and art.
Prior to the Gibson acquisition, Cesar co-founded Melody Capital Partners, an alternative asset manager focused on private corporate financing, restructuring and investing. Under his leadership, Melody grew from a seed investment of $100 million to more than $1.5 billion in assets under management investing in companies around the world across consumer brands, telecom, real estate, music and entertainment and F&B.
Prior to co-founding Melody, Cesar served as founder and global head of the Special Situations Group (“SSG”) at UBS, as well as head of the firm’s Leveraged Finance Capital Markets (“LCM”) team for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He has also headed teams at Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank in London and New York.
Cesar earned a B.A. in Business from Universidad de San Andres, Buenos Aires, Argentina and an M.B.A. from The University of Chicago focused on Analytic Finance and Economics.
Cesar is a former athlete – tennis player competing in Latin and North America from ages 8 to 18 – surfer, kitesurfer, polo player, snowboarder and self-described extreme sports junkie.