First Act Inc.

First Act was a manufacturer of musical instruments and musical learning toys, that produced guitars, bass guitars, guitar and bass accessories, drum sets, percussion instruments, and amplifiers. Mark Izen founded the company in 1995; its online presence first appeared early in 2000. Despite being officially based in Boston, Massachusetts, at its peak First Act maintained offices in Bentonville, Hong Kong, and Shenzhen, and a "custom shop" luthiery in Somerville, Massachusetts. In 2016, First Act was acquired by toy manufacturer Jazwares. Founding management team First Act was largely an unrelated result of the successful sale of Duracraft to the Consumer Products division of Honeywell in 1996. Bernard Chiu, the founder of Duracraft, was offered a leadership role at First Act Inc. after selling his company, he accepted thus establishing the companies leadership hierarchy. As a significant portion of First Act Inc. leadership were previous Duracraft employees there were no dedicated musicians, instead they would rely on their experience with generic commodity-level small appliances. Bernard Chiu, chairman of the Board — previously co-founder (with Tim Chen and Ronald Izen) and CEO of Duracraft, as well as president and Chairman Ronald Izen, Vice Chairman of the Board — previously Executive Vice President of Sales for Duracraft, from its founding in 1989 through 1998 Mark Izen, President and CEO — Prior to starting First Act Inc. in 1995, Mark founded CMI Enterprises, Inc., a manufacturer's representative firm that sold, high-profile consumer products lines to national and regional retailers. Mary Hassan, Vice President, Human Resources — former Vice President of Human Resources for Duracraft and then Honeywell Consumer Products, and Director of Staffing and Employee Relations for Reebok International. Tony Natale, Vice President, Finance and Operations — eleven years at Duracraft then Honeywell in various financial and operational positions, including Director of Materials Management and Assistant Controller. Kelly Butler, Chief Luthier, Custom Shop Manager and Designer - seven years at Gibson Guitars Custom Shop as a custom builder and designer. Currently produces instruments under the K. Butler Guitars brand name.