Tom is a specialist in music and creative industries policy, strategy and campaigns.

Tom was a founding architect of the Live Music Act, designed to deregulate live music performance from entertainment licensing, and navigated its passage through Parliament while working in the House of Lords.

At UK Music, Tom subsequently coordinated the successful Parliamentary campaign to introduce the agent of change principle to protect music venues. Most recently, he has taken a leading role in responding to challenges presented by the pandemic, the impact of leaving the EU and the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI),

Tom has also played a key role in major debates on copyright policy. This includes campaigning to support music rights in the Copyright Directive and organising a successful industry wide judicial review of Coalition Government plans to introduce an exception to copyright for private copying without fair compensation.

Tom joined UK Music in 2012 as Director of Government and Public Affairs. Prior to this, Tom worked in the Houses of Parliament for 11 years as an advisor and researcher in a Whips Office in both Government and Opposition.

In 2018 Tom was promoted to the role of Deputy CEO and Director of Public Affairs. In this role, Tom retained oversight of all public affairs work at UK Music, as well as research, policy, skills and education work-streams and budgets.

He took on the role of acting CEO at UK Music between January-September 2020 before returning to the role of Deputy CEO and Director of Public Affairs. He then again took on the role of Interim Chief Executive of UK Music in September 2023.

Email: tom.kiehl@ukmusic.org