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Paul Bonham becomes Professional Development Director at MMF
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 6 May 2022
The UK’s Music Managers Forum has announced the promotion of Paul Bonham to the new role of Professional Development Director.
Having previously run the organisation’s Accelerator Programme – the YouTube supported grants and education initiative for independent managers – Bonham will now focus on expanding and redefining the MMF’s training and development services.
MMF explains that this process will involve “surveying members’ developmental needs and creating bespoke learning opportunities, with the goal of empowering music management businesses at all stages of their growth to reach their full commercial potential”.
Commenting on his new role, Bonham says: “Even before the pandemic, the role played by music managers within the industry was becoming increasingly important – whether as investors or in key areas like artist development”.
“From my experience on the Accelerator Programme”, he adds, “where we work with some of the UK’s most talented independent managers, I have also seen first-hand the benefits of continuous learning, where managers from different backgrounds can share knowledge and expand their skills and networks”.
“The impacts have been astonishing”, he goes on. “For these reasons, I am really excited that we can now take these learnings and apply them far more widely, helping the MMF to better serve our incredibly diverse membership and enabling them to support the careers of artists, songwriters, producers and DJs”.
Alongside Bonham’s promotion, the MMF has also formally announced the recent appointment of a new General Manager at the organisation in the form of Anneliese Harmon. In that role, she is “responsible for increasing the MMF’s effectiveness by creating and communicating the organisation’s strategy through forward-planning, continuous monitoring and development”.
Confirming all this, MMF CEO Annabella Coldrick says: “In what is a highly fragmented music business, where artists are being empowered to build their own unique pathways, the role of the music manager has never been so crucial – or so demanding”.
“The rapid expansion of the MMF’s membership, which has more than doubled in recent years, is testament to these changes and there is a real need to provide both the current and upcoming generation of music managers with highly targeted business support”.
“With the range of partners we already work with”, she adds, “I believe the MMF is well placed to further provide these services, and by increasing our resources and utilising the expertise of Paul and Anneliese we are now in a position to build on the successes of Accelerator and our other in-house training programmes and help even more UK-based managers to professionalise their businesses and thrive”.
