03/02/2020: Tom Kiehl starts today (Monday February 3) as UK Music’s Acting CEO by hosting Shadow Culture Secretary Tracy Brabin at a high-level round-table for music industry leaders.
He has moved up from his role as Deputy CEO to become the interim head of the organisation during the process to recruit a replacement for former CEO Michael Dugher who left at the end of January.
Tom welcomes the Shadow Culture Secretary, who was appointed to the job in January, to UK Music’s HQ to meet leaders of UK Music’s membership organisations.
He will brief Ms Brabin on the key concerns of the music industry, which contributes £5.2 billion to the UK economy and employs 190,000 people.
The key issues include the implementation of the core principles of the Copyright Directive into UK copyright law, ensuring the Government secures a future trade agreement with the EU to support overseas tours and the continued issues facing music in education and UK’s talent pipeline.
Tom Kiehl took over the position of acting CEO on January 30 following the departure of Michael Dugher. Tom has been with UK Music for over seven and a half years, working as Director of Public Affairs under former CEO Jo Dipple before being promoted to Deputy CEO by Mr Dugher.
During his time at UK Music Tom has been intimately involved in all of UK Music’s campaign successes including the private copying Judicial Review, #LetItBeeb in support of BBC Music services, law and policy reforms, support for struggling music venues and the #LoveMusic initiative to back the Copyright Directive.
Prior to joining UK Music Tom worked in the Houses of Parliament for 11 years in a variety of advisory, research and party management roles, including within the Coalition Government until 2012. Whilst in Parliament he created what became the Live Music Act – a ground-breaking piece of legislation that deregulated live music performance from local authority entertainment licensing for certain performances in England and Wales.
Tracy Brabin was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on January 7 2020, replacing previous Shadow Culture Secretary Tom Watson, who stepped down as an MP at the last general election.
The MP has worked with UK Music in the past on the #SelfieLeave campaign with MPG Executive Director Olga FitzRoy. Tracy Brabin’s parliamentary bill would have updated the shared parental leave and pay rules to include self-employed parents.
UK Music continues to campaign on this issue, including running a series of panels at the party conferences in Autumn 2019. Tracy Brabin spoke on UK Music’s panel at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton.
Tom Kiehl says:
“Tracy Brabin has a unique background in the creative industries and I’m delighted that she has agreed to visit UK Music to listen to the concerns of the industry at such an important time following our departure from the EU.
“I’m sure it will be an invaluable opportunity for our members to set out concerns to the Shadow Culture Secretary, as well as for Tracy as she looks to shape Labour’s future policy on the creative industries and how our world leading £5.2 billion music industry can contribute to this.”
Tracy Brabin MP says:
“The music industry in the UK is a runaway success story and I’m so looking forward to sitting down with UK Music and other experts to learn more.
“We cannot hide away from the fact that there are challenges and uncertainty, not least through the Brexit process, and I’m looking forward to finding solutions”.
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