Rob Prinz
Partner/co-head of worldwide concerts,
ICM Partners
Steve Levine
Board member/partner/co-head of
worldwide concerts, ICM Partners
Mark Siegel
Partner/head of music, ICM Partners
Robert Gibbs
Partner/concerts agent, ICM Partners
In addition to booking “so many varied
genres” — including successful tours for
Khalid (whom ICM represents outside North
America), Jon Bellion, Alice in Chains, Ka-
masi Washington, Teyana Taylor and Tayla
Parx — Prinz, 61, says 2019 also marked
the success of his agency’s collaborations
with two leading hip-hop label/manage-
ment organizations: Quality Control Music
(Migos, Lil Yachty) and J. Cole’s Dreamville
Records (Ari Lennox, EarthGang, J.I.D).
In December, Cole announced that the
second Dreamville Festival will take place in
Raleigh, N.C., on April 4. ICM also struck a
deal with Good Charlotte co-founder Joel
Madden “as a representative of ICM and an
ambassador in the [artist] community,” says
Prinz. “He’s having a huge impact for us.”
David Zedeck
Partner/head of worldwide music, UTA
Natalia Nastaskin
GM of global music group, UTA
Ken Fermaglich
Partner/agent, music leadership, UTA
Cheryl Paglierani
Agent, music, UTA
Just over two years into his tenure, Zedeck,
formerly of Live Nation, has significantly
expanded UTA’s music division, led by the
Spice Girls in 2019 and ongoing dates for
Jonas Brothers and the ascendant Post
Malone (booked by Paglierani). The second
Posty Fest in Arlington, Texas, in Novem-
ber featured sets by Meek Mill, Pharrell
Williams and others, and doubled in size
to over 40,000 attendees. Zedeck’s team
is equally proud of its “diverse roster of
emerging talent,” he says, including Tierra
Whack, Burna Boy and others. “Within the
past year, they have played major festivals,
grown their touring business and partnered
with high-profile brands while raising their
profiles substantially within the music land-
scape,” says Zedeck.
LABELS & DISTRIBUTORS
Steve Barnett
Chairman/CEO, Capitol Music Group
Michelle Jubelirer
COO, Capitol Music Group
Ashley Newton
President, Capitol Music Group;
executive vp creative/special projects,
Universal Music Group
Ethiopia Habtemariam
President, Motown Records; executive vp,
Dressed For Success
(With A Little Help)
Taking a cue from the artists they work with,
executives are turning to stylists to craft looks that
win on the red carpet and in the boardroom
W
HEN NEGAR ALI
Kline began her
career as a stylist
in the late 1990s, her music
clients included Diddy,
Usher, Will Smith (for his
Men in Black red carpet
appearances) and Destiny’s
Child (for the “Say My Name”
video). But a few years ago,
she began to notice a change:
She would be working on a
campaign, and the executives
involved would inevitably fall
in love with pieces she had
pulled. “These were people
who had incredible positions
and didn’t just want to put
on the corporate uniform
expected of them,” she says.
“We’d start talking about
style, they’d come to Los
Angeles, and I’d take them
out for a day of shopping.
From there, it grew.”
Kline is among a growing
number of celebrity stylists
whose roster has expanded to
include music executives. “Ten
years ago, we didn’t know the
names of the CEOs [running]
the companies we interact
with on a daily basis. There
was a curtain,” she says of the
shift. “Now it’s sort of required
that they have a forward-
facing presence.” She works
closely with executives includ-
ing Endeavor chief marketing
officer Bozoma Saint John.
It’s precisely this melding of
brand and individual identi-
ties, along with the rise of
social media, that is leading
more executives to become
fluent in the uses of color
and silhouette far beyond
the black power suit of years
past. In the Instagram era,
when photographs from
events live forever on the
internet, style as a mode of
communicating power — and
of connecting with artist
clients — is becoming in-
creasingly important (though,
says Kline, most executives
still prefer to remain discreet
about working with a stylist).
Brendan Cannon, who has
styled artists like Annie Len-
nox and Shirley Manson, says
he tries to help music execu-
tives identify “those pieces
that give them talking points
with the artist.” Andrea Lub-
lin, who worked for E! and
the Style Network before
building her own styl-
ing career exclusively
catering to executives,
focuses on getting cli-
ents “out of their box”
for events. She put
Caroline president
Jacqueline Saturn
in a turtleneck and
crystal-embellished
crepe pencil skirt by
Alessandro Dell’Acqua
for Billboard’s Women
in Music event in De-
cember. “The challenge
with music, specifically,
is balancing the hardcore
rock’n’roll world with the
high-level executive one,”
she says. “And Jacqueline
stood out for all of the
right reasons.”
Like Lublin, Kline will build
out an entire working ward-
robe for clients, right down
to finding the jacket they
wear when closing the deal.
“Putting on a Tom Ford blazer
can make a man feel like
superman,” she says. But with
someone like Saint John, who
has a vibrantly distinct sense
of how she wants to commu-
nicate through fashion, she
is simply on hand to support
the vision and, ultimately, save
time. “These are people who
are traveling constantly,” says
Kline of her music executive
clients. “Why wouldn’t you
subcontract the styling out?”
—BROOKE MAZUREK
ZEDECK
NASTASKIN
FERMAGLICH
PAGLIERANI
BARNETT
JUBELIRER
NEWTON
HABTEMARIAM
SIEGEL
PRINZ
LEVINE
GIBBS
Saint John
in an outfit
planned with
her stylist,
Kline.
2
0
2
0
L
I
S
T
106 BILLBOARD • JANUARY 25, 2020
PRINZ,BARNETT,^ JUBELIRER,^ NEWTON:LESTER^COHEN.^ L
EVINE:ALEX^ J.^ B
ERLINER.SIEGEL,GIBBS:^ CHYNA^PHOTOGRAPHY.ZEDECK,^ NASTASKIN,^FERMAGLICH,^ PAGLIERANI:^COURTESYOF^UTA.HABTEMARIAM:^ COURTESY^OFMOTOWN^RECORDS.JOHN:MATT^WINKELMEYER/GETTYIMAGES.