Describe your background and industry experience, and explain how it will help you contribute to the SOCAN Board of Directors?
My experience as a lawyer and executive in the Canadian music and copyright space over the past 25 years uniquely position me to contribute to the SOCAN Board. I have a music degree from York (1996) and a law degree from Western (1999). I started my career in music as an intern in SOCAN’s Licensing Department (1995), where I was encouraged by SOCAN’s Dan Greenwood to pursue a career in law. I spent my first law school summer in SOCAN’s Legal Department, and thereafter joined the Information, Communications & Entertainment practice group at Cassels Brock. After 5 years as an associate lawyer at Cassels, I joined partners Chris Taylor, Miro Oballa and others to form the music law boutique firm that would become Taylor Klein Oballa L.L.P., where I continued to represent artists, writers, media companies (including Rogers Communications), labels and publishers, including ole (now Anthem) for over 10 years. I left private practice to join ole/Anthem as VP, Legal & Business Affairs in May 2016, and was appointed CEO of Anthem in January 2023.   As CEO of Canada’s largest independent music publisher and drawing on two decades of experience as a music and copyright lawyer, I will bring an important and valuable perspective to the SOCAN board.Â
In your opinion, what issues will be most important to SOCAN members over the next three years?
Priority issues from Anthem’s perspective include continued efforts to maximize royalties and achieve revenue completeness across all income sources; improve royalty reporting and transparency from DSPs; resolution of new any outstanding system issues that impact registrations and/or royalty processing and distributions; transparency in royalty processing and distributions; efficiencies in registration and conflict processes; government relations work and legislative reform to encourage strong copyright laws, fair compensation, and support for music rights holders; and flexibility with respect to evolving business practices (e.g., DPLs, writer share acquisitions, etc.).Â