Exciting times at the growing Lively office! We can’t think of a better way to kick off the Lively Blog than by introducing our three newest team members.
Dean Graziano, founder and CEO of Lively, announced that Brian Hirsh has been named Lively’s first chief music officer, Abe Claiborne has been appointed to the role of vice president of Artist and Label Relations and Geoff Walker has joined Lively as its chief marketing officer.
“Our success and high ambitions at Lively are made possible because of our stellar team, and we are thrilled to have Brian, Abe and Geoff join,” said Graziano. “With their more than 40 collective years of experience in the music, media and marketing industries, their leadership will be a tremendous asset to our company as we take the Lively experience to the next level.”
The announcement follows recent landmark successes in Lively’s growth, including a partnership with Yahoo’s “Ram Country Live!” to bring exclusive live audio recordings from music star Keith Urban to Lively’s app, as well as a successful, oversubscribed seed funding round.
Brian Hirsh, chief music officer, brings more than 15 years of experience in music, label relations and digital media to Lively and will oversee artist and label relations, licensing and venue partnerships. Most recently, Brian served as the chief creative officer for the Los Angeles-based agency start up, Mirrored Media. Previously, he was senior vice president, creative services at PlayNetwork where he oversaw the creative, music, video, new media and label relations teams as well as founder and president of Retail Entertainment Design, an entertainment marketing group in Seattle.
Abe Claiborne, vice president of artist and label relations, is a leader in the entertainment business with more than 16 years of experience in artist development, management and marketing for top-tier entertainment companies. Prior to his current role, Abe served as chief operating officer of D.C. Hardcore, H.R. of Bad Brains’ record label, where his duties included booking tours, A&R and developing brand partnerships. Abe previously handled music strategy and licensing for major brands including American Eagle and Harley Davidson, working with hundreds of labels and artists. He also spent more than 10 years with the Universal Music Group, as the director of artist development and college marketing, where he organized more than 1,000 marketing campaigns for major and independent label artists in genres targeted to the youth market.
Geoff Walker, chief marketing officer, has held key roles in the entertainment, technology and sports industries, working with Microsoft, RealNetworks, T-Mobile, e2k Sports and DirecTV Sports/ROOT Sports. Geoff joins Lively after running his own event marketing company, WalkerRun Events. Recently Geoff held the title of vice president of Marketing at DirecTV Sports where he led the rebrand of Fox Sport Net to launch the award-winning ROOT Sports in Pittsburgh, Denver, and Seattle. Prior to that, Geoff led the field and guerrilla marketing teams supporting more than 2,000 T-Mobile retail stores. During his years as senior director of Events and Productions at RealNetworks, Geoff was deeply involved in the launch and sustaining marketing efforts of several products and services including the Rhapsody music service. He has produced concerts and events across the United States and abroad and has worked with high-profile artists, actors, and professional athletes including Alicia Keys, the Foo Fighters and Kevin Spacey, as well as projects including the NFL Pro Bowl All-Star game in Hawaii.
Keep checking back for more news from the Lively team.
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