ESP Guitar Company Announces Executive Leadership Changes

ESP Guitars has announced that Matt Masciandaro, the company’s president and CEO of the brand’s U.S. operations for the past 39 years, has decided to retire. Moving into Masciandaro’s former role as president is Todd Binder, who has spent more than three decades at the company, and most recently has served as ESP’s vice president of product development. ESP celebrated its 50th year in business in 2025.

“On behalf of ESP Japan, I wish to express our sincere gratitude to Matt for his many years of dedicated service and his steadfast commitment to advancing Mr. Shibuya’s vision in the United States and across the world,” said Mr. Fujimori, chairman of ESP Group. “His contributions to the ESP brand have been invaluable, and the foundation he has built will endure for years to come. We congratulate him and wish him the very best.”

Founded by Hisatake Shibuya in 1975 as a small instrument service shop in Tokyo, Japan, ESP Guitars became a global known after opening its first U.S. offices in 1985. Matt Masciandaro, who’d previously worked as a tech and a tour manager for bands, including Aerosmith, Motörhead, Dokken and others, joined the company soon after. The brand grew exponentially under Masciandaro’s leadership. He relocated ESP’s U.S. headquarters, first in 1989 to New York’s 48th Street to be in close proximity to the city’s famed music stores, and then a few years later to California with an office in Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard. As ESP quickly grew, Masciandaro moved the company to a location in North Hollywood, and then again to its current U.S. headquarter location in Los Angeles.

“I am both proud and humbled by the trust that Mr. Shibuya placed in me back in 1987 when I was chosen to lead ESP’s USA operations,” Masciandaro said. “A lot of this job was ‘learn as you go,’ but most of the time, we went above and beyond both our own expectations and those of ESP in Japan. I have nothing but the highest degree of confidence that with Todd at the helm, ESP will continue long into the future in its position as an innovative, high-quality provider of musical instruments.”

“Matt has been a dedicated leader and a true champion for this brand, and I’m grateful for every year I’ve had the privilege of working alongside him,” Binder said. “This company’s success has always been a collective effort — rooted in Mr. Shibuya’s founding vision, strengthened by the outstanding team at ESP Japan, and driven every day by the talented and passionate people we have here in the US. I’m honored to carry that legacy forward, and I couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead for ESP.”

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