Wolfgang Jellinghaus (born 1951 in Dortmund) was born into a guitar making family and began making them himself at the age of 14. In 1978 he became owner of Musik Jellinghaus GmbH, a  leading retailer for music instruments and sheet music in Germany. In 1982 he registered the Martinez brand for guitars and  designed the first line of Martinez Guitars. In 2003 he teamed up with Kenny Hill and Alex Wang and founded the Minyard Martinez guitar factory which now has customers in 30 countries. In 2013 he sold Musik Jellinghaus GmbH and went to China to set up the Milestone Luthier Center: a small workshop making high quality classical guitars.

Source: Milestones of Music website (19 January 2022)