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Global Rock Summit speakers


Allison Hagendorf

(Former Head of Rock, Spotify & Host/Executive Producer, Spotify Original Series)

Bex Majors

Booking Agent, Sound Talent Group

Charley Londoño

Counsel Plus, Co.

Chris Foitle

Head of A&R, Epitaph Records

David "Beno" Benveniste

Founder & CEO, Velvet Hammer Music & Management Group (Alice In Chains, Deftones, Korn, System Of A Down & More)

Frank Helmink

Director, Buma ROCKS! (The Netherlands)

Garrett Capone

VP of Promotion & GM Rock Music, Crush Music

Gary Spivack

Executive Sr. VP / Talent & Curation, Danny Wimmer Presents

Georgette Bivins

Sr. Business Affairs Manager, FCB NY

Greg Sowders

Sr. Vice President A&R, Warner Chappell Music

Jan Šorm

Chairman of APRKA (Czech Republic)

Jason Miller

CEO, Eventim Live Asia

Jens Lundberg

Founder, Blue Lemon Management (Sweden)

Jobst Neerman

Managing Director, RBK Fusion (Germany)

Joel Mark

Executive Manager, YMU

Keith Cunningham

Program Director, 95/5 KLOS Meruelo Media, Los Angeles

Ken Anthony

Rock Editor, AllAccess.com

Kenny "Tick" Salcido

Sr. VP/Head of A&R, Red Bull Records

Laura Catana

Head of Artist Relations, IndieFlow

Lisa Worden

Vice President Rock & Alternative, Program Director ALT 98.7 - LA's New Alternative, iHeartMedia National Programming Group

Mark Sutherland

Music & Media Journalist (U.K.)

Martijn Swier

Founder, Endless Music (The Netherlands)

Matt Pinfield

Host "New & Approved" KLOS, Los Angeles / Westwood One & Benztown Radio Networks Syndicated Host

Matthew Reich

Co-Founder, Artist For Artist

Michael Faley

President, Metal Blade Records

Riku Pääkkönen

Owner & Founder, Ranka Kustannus

Ritch Esra

Publisher, The Music Registry

Rob McDermott

President & Founder, Mad Mac Entertainment

Salman U. Syed

Founder, Infinite Dreams / Bangalore Open Air Festival (India)

Sat Bisla

President & Founder, A&R Worldwide / Global Rock Summit

Sean Heydorn

Vice President, Rise Records

Shannon O'Shea

Artist & Producer Manager, Creative Consultant, SOS Management

Tej Brar

Founder & Managing Director of Third Culture Ent't (India)

Thomas Scherer

President, Repertoire & Marketing, Los Angeles & New York, BMG

Toby Wright

Award Winning Producer (Alice In Chains, KISS, Korn, Ozzy Osbourne, Primus & More)

Tommy Nast

Sr. Programming Director/Music Strategies, Trafalgar Releasing

Ritch Esra

Ritch Esra

Publisher, The Music Registry

For over 28 Ritch Esra have been running the Music Business Registry which includes The A&R Registry, The Publisher Registry, The Music Business Attorney Registry, Artist Manager Registry and The Film and Television Music Guide.

"Our various publications and databases give everyone vital, accurate and the most up to date information they need to contact the entire A&R, music publishing, artist management, legal and the film and Television music communities," says Ritch. "Each publication contains contact information consisting of address, E-mail (including web sites), direct dial telephone.

Additionally, we provide the exact title, street address, the name of their assistant and the style of music that each executive deals with. Due to the volatile nature of A&R, the A&R Registry is completely updated and reprinted every eight weeks and often has over 20-30 changes in a single issue. There are no other publications of this kind anywhere in the world."

Among the subscribers are record company executives, music publishers, managers, agents, attorneys, studios and other various music business professionals in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Chicago, Atlanta, Toronto, London, Dublin, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Stockholm, Sydney, and Munich.

Ritch started out as a promotion coordinator for A&M Records in Los Angeles in 1980-81. From 1981-1987, Ritch was director of West Coast A&R for Arista Records. He signed The Thompson Twins to their US Deal as well as Mara Getz. He worked extensively with the publishing and songwriting communities for material for Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Melissa Manchester, Tanya Tucker, Jennifer Warnes and Jermaine Jackson. He also coordinated music for the "Ghostbusters" and "Perfect" soundtracks.

From 1987-1992, Ritch worked on various independent projects. He produced the award-winning educational video for artists and musicians, "How to Get a Record Deal." "At the time, it was the only video of its kind examining the frequently misunderstood process from five different perspectives: record company executives, A&R VPs, artist managers, record producers and 16 major artists including Los Lobos, Mark Knopfler, Phil Collins, Jody Watley, Karla Bonoff, Michael Bolton, Fleetwood Mac, Chick Corea and Kenny Loggins," says Ritch. Producers Phil Ramone and Jeff Baxter are also interviewed in the video.

In 2012, he was one of the founders of MUBUTV, an educational channel for artists on Youtube. Ina addition, he has taught Music Business classes at the Musicians Institute as well as SAE (School for Audio Engineering) and has also taught at UCLA Extension.