Music Publishers Association

Vanessa Reed is Chief Executive of the PRS Foundation. Since joining in 2008, Vanessa has repositioned the Foundation as the UK’s most pioneering and effective funder of new music and talent development, significantly increasing resources for the music industry and launching a diverse range of new initiatives which respond to the needs of composers and songwriters of all backgrounds.  Recent initiatives initiated by Vanessa include Momentum – the ground-breaking talent development fund for artists working in pop music (in partnership with Arts Council England, PPL and Spotify) and a range of international initiatives including the pioneering Keychange campaign which invests in female talent whilst encouraging music festivals to aim for a 50:50 gender balance by 2022.

Before joining the Foundation, Vanessa worked as an independent arts consultant, as Grants Manager at the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam), in the Education and Culture Directorate of the European Commission (Brussels) and as Promotions Manager at the British Music Information Centre. Vanessa was selected as one of fifty ‘Women to Watch’ by the Cultural Leadership Programme in 2010. More recently Vanessa won the music category of the Hospital Club’s 100 Awards for UK creative industry influencers and was awarded a Fellowship by Leeds College of Music.  Vanessa is Chair of Sound UK Arts and Board member of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

You can follow Vanessa on Twitter here @vanessa_prsf. Learn more about the brilliant work that PRS Foundation do here and learn more about Keychange here.

Vanessa will be speaking on Day 2 of the seminar. You can still book tickets for the second day by heading over to the events page here.