Power Restructure
NEWLY APPOINTED PRESIDENT/CEO HARVEY MASON JR. NAMES VALEISHA BUTTERFIELD JONES AND PANOS PANAY CO-PRESIDENTS
For the first time, the Recording Academy will have a separate CEO and president — or make that presidents. Starting Aug. 16, Recording Academy president/CEO Harvey Mason Jr. — who accepted that role on a permanent-basis in May — will relinquish half of his title to co-presidents Valeisha Butterfield Jones and Panos Panay, restructuring the organization’s executive suite.
Butterfield Jones — who was hired as the academy’s first chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer in May 2020 after four years as Google’s global head of inclusion — will retain her existing responsibilities and now oversee membership and awards, advocacy and related initiatives. Panay, who founded and ran Sonicbids and will join the academy from Berklee College of Music, where he was senior vp of global strategy and innovation, will also become chief revenue officer.
“The three of us will be operating as a unit as we strengthen every system in every part of our organization from the inside out,” says Butterfield Jones.
The new co-presidents assume their roles at a period of dramatic change for the academy. The previous CEO, Deborah Dugan, was ousted after five months, in January 2020, just 10 days before that year’s Grammy Award ceremony. (The organization accused her of workplace bullying. She filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission discrimination complaint alleging she was terminated because she had threatened to expose misconduct. Arbitration hearings are scheduled to begin July 12.) Since then, as board chair and interim president/CEO, Mason has instituted a major structural reorganization, overseen new diversity initiatives for incoming voting member classes and, in April, led a board of trustees vote to disband nomination-review committees. After a lengthy search process to hire a new president/CEO, Mason was named to the role permanently on May 13 and recently told Billboard that a hiring search is underway for in-house counsel.
“We had come to a place where we needed to do things differently,” says Mason, adding the move represents “an opportunity to build a dynamic new leadership team,” to focus on growth and innovation.
On June 2, the academy’s board of trustees also announced its new slate of elected officers: Tammy Hurt as chair, Rico Love as vice chair and Om’Mas Keith as secretary/treasurer. Christina Albert returned as chair emeritus. “Developing the academy for the 21st century as part of this amazing group,” adds Panay, “I’m energized and inspired by the opportunity to do good and do well.”