AIMP Panel

Place: View Map
Lawry's The Prime Rib
100 North La Cienega Blvd. (near Wilshire)
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

From left, Michael Eames/PEN Music Group & AIMP President, Vickie Nauman/CrossBorderworks, Chris Castle, Esq., Sam Kling/SESAC & AIMP Board Meeting and Gigi Johnson/UCLA Center For Music Innovation.

Photos by Liz Redwing, courtesy of Lawry's The Prime Rib.

Additional Speaker Information

Chris Castle is founder of Christian L. Castle, Attorneys in Austin, Texas and is admitted in Texas and California. He divides his time between traditional music industry clients, representing innovative music tech startups and addressing public policy matters relating to copyright and artist rights. Chris was Senior Vice President and General Counsel at SNOCAP in San Francisco, Senior Vice President Business Affairs at Sony Music in New York, and Vice President Business & Legal Affairs at A&M Records in Hollywood. He has testified on artist rights issues at the UK Parliament, spoken at Congressional seminars and lectured at universities and law schools in the US and Canada on music-tech issues and artist rights. Chris is a frequent speaker at professional events such as the National Association of Attorneys General, SXSW and the California Copyright Conference. Chris is an MBA graduate of the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a JD graduate of the UCLA School of Law where he was a member of the UCLA Law Review and an Olin Fellow in Law and Economics. Chris writes the MusicTechPolicy and MusicTech Solutions blogs and contributes regularly to the Huffington Post, Hypebot and The Trichordist.

Sam Kling is SESAC’s Senior Vice President, Creative Operations. As part of SESAC’s senior management team, Kling is responsible for helping create and execute growth strategies for SESAC’s creative departments. He also manages the creative operations’ day-to-day department objectives. Kling is based in SESAC’s Los Angeles offices. Before his position at SESAC, Kling served as Vice President at peermusic and was in charge of overseeing the independent music company’s Pop A&R as well as Film & TV creative operations. He holds a an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Bachelor’s degree from the New School University in New York City. Kling is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS), a national board member of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) as well as a Los Angeles board member of the TJ Martell Foundation.

Vickie Nauman has deep experience in the intersection of technology and music, product/device integration, the international role of music across cultures, and strategic business development. She founded the boutique consulting and advisory firm CrossBorderWorks and is currently advising and consulting full time with a portfolio of forward-thinking companies in consumer electronics and music. Nauman has a background that spans traditional and digital media, and insider roles in licensing, rights management, product management, marketing, and leadership as well as consulting, giving her a unique perspective on the ever-changing global media landscape. A digital music pioneer, Nauman worked on licensing and product for one of the first legal digital services MusicNet (RealNetworks JV) in 2001, led strategic partnerships for connected device manufacturer Sonos (leading wireless music system), started and ran the US business for global music platform 7digital, and did digital business in Europe and China as a consultant. In addition, she built one of the first DMCA-compliant services at taste-making station KEXP in Seattle.

Gigi Johnson launched the UCLA Center for Music Innovation in 2014 to explore how innovation changes social connections and human systems around music and with music. Dr. Johnson joined HASOM in 2010 to teach digital marketing and branding for musicians and for music organizations, and her class has grown to a core element of the Music Industry Minor. She previously had taught about digital disruption as a lecturer at UCLA Anderson, where she had been Executive Director of what is now its Center for Management of Enterprises in Media, Entertainment and Sports. As the Executive Director of the Maremel Institute, she teaches and speaks internationally on future impacts of digital disruption on media and cultural systems. Dr. Johnson runs innovation leadership programs for both creators and leaders of media and educational organizations. She also has sat on the boards of start-ups, trade organizations, and non-profits. As a voice of balance between interests of creators and technology firms, she also has become a member of the NonCommercial Users Constituency at ICANN. On the creative side, she runs has produced and distributed web series, live events, and multimedia educational programs for musicians, creative professionals, technology innovators, and other communities. She also has produced albums and concerts as an independent artist.