History

Letter from Dan Hoffman – President and CEO of M5 Networks

There is something very near and dear to my heart that I would like to share with the world…

From the moment I started my career, I had this vision of merging the teamwork of a rock band with the savviness of business. Having played with various with bands through the years, I understood the importance of working together as a single unit and firmly believe that the same is true about running a successful business.

When M5 Networks was founded back in May of 2000, I began to dream of the day that business and music would come together… This started to become a reality the day we signed Korg (sales and marketing distributor of the some of the world’s best music equipment), as a client back in January of 2010. Korg had decided to sponsor M5 a supply of equipment, such as amplifiers, guitars and keyboards. We then agreed to transform an unused office into a music room and the journey began…

Inspired by the movie School of Rock, I contacted the “real” Paul Green’s School of Rock to ascertain if it was possible to bring their music program to a group of adults at M5, which they eagerly embraced. Offers were made to the entire staff to participate in the M5 Rock program and over 30 M5′ers expressed a wish to participate in the program, signed up for individual music lessons. From this pool we formed seven rock bands (5 in NYC and 2 from our Rochester office) that rehearsed together for six months.

All things considered, we had approximately thirty M5 employees taking individual music lessons, seven bands rehearsing weekly, so why not give them something tangible to work towards?

The result – a combined Battle of the M5 Bands to take place at our Holiday Party tonight!

Paul Green’s School of Rock teachers have agreed to judge the event, and we developed a live ‘People Vote’ for attendees through their mobile devices… We are also proud to announce that we have embarked on a documentary of the entire program which will be released officially post event. You are able to view video clips and read more on the background/history of the event – and see the results after the event – on our very own web site wwww.M5BattleoftheBands.com.

Take some time, spin through our site wwww.M5BattleoftheBands.com… We encourage feedback, well wishes, and rock and roll!

Happy Holidays!

Dan Hoffman on M5 Rock from M5 Battle of the Band on Vimeo.

Sound bites from CEO Dan Hoffman about the M5 School of Rock program.