YolanDa Brown - Chair

For some, worldwide touring and critically acclaimed albums would be satisfaction enough. Not for YolanDa Brown, she wears many hats, musician, broadcaster, author, philanthropist and wears them… with passion and full of vigour.

YolanDa is a double MOBO Award winning saxophonist and composer, her music is a delicious fusion of reggae, jazz and soul. She is currently composing music for the iconic Sesame Street and an animated series called Bea’s Block, as well as Netflix for CocoMelon Lane.

She has toured with The Temptations, Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, Beverley Knight, Billy Ocean and collaborated with artists such as Snarky Puppy’s Bill Laurance, Omar, Kelly Jones from Stereophonics and Rick Astley.

A champion for the importance of music education, YolanDa is Chair of Youth Music, on the national council of the Arts Council, a trustee of PRS Foundation, an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust and London Music Fund, a champion for the children’s mental health charity Place2Be. She also sits on the advisory board of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Six by Southbank for the Southbank Centre.

The Department of Education and DCMS in 2021, invited YolanDa to sit on the advisory panel for the National Plan for Music Education, published in June 2022 to positive response. “My dream is that EVERY child has access to music making and benefits from the joy that music emits. The NPME will in many ways support this; from the young child having their first musical experience, to the next generation of aspiring musicians who need to be inspired and motivated to pursue the plethora of career opportunities within the music industry.”

During the pandemic with Sony Music and Twinkl, YolanDa rolled out her bespoke online music lesson plans for teachers, parents and pupils in primary schools nationwide, over 30 000 children have used the resources. In 2018 along with James JP Drake, she launched the "Drake YolanDa Award" offering grants to emerging musicians between the ages of 16 – 30.

YolanDa graduated with first class honours studying an Undergraduate Masters degree in Operations management from the University of Kent, followed by a Masters in Methods of Social Research, she studied a PhD in Management Science for four years, before taking a hiatus from her thesis to pursue her music career. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by the University of East London in 2011.

An eclectic broadcaster working across TV and Radio, including her eponymous series for CBeebies, "YolanDa’s Band Jam", which won the Royal Television Society NW award as Best Children’s Programme. For the BBC Proms she hosted the Ella and Dizzy Centenary, as well as Last night of the Proms, Gospel Choir of the Year and Songs of Praise for BBC One and BBC Young Jazz Musician of the year. Host of the London Philharmonic Orchestra podcast Offstage, which was nominated for a 2022 British Podcast Award.

Over on the airways, she hosts YolanDa Brown on Saturday on Jazz FM and BBC Radio 4’s ‘Loose Ends’ with Clive Anderson, can be heard regularly on BBC Radio 2 or on the plane as part of British Airways inflight entertainment.

You may have also spotted her flexing her general knowledge muscles on such shows as ‘University Challenge’, ‘The Hit List’, Richard Osman’s ‘House of Games’, ‘Celebrity Mastermind’, ‘Pointless Celebrities’ and Gareth Malone’s ‘All Star Music Quiz’. She even got to indulge her other passion of classic cars on ‘Celebrity Antiques Road Trip’, scouring the country for hidden treasures.

An entrepreneur too, she launched the “London Saxophone Festival” in 2018, currently in its third edition. YolanDa loves to drive fast cars around race tracks in her spare time and can even rattle off a Rubik’s Cube in around five minutes (on a good day).

YolanDa Brown was appointed as Chair of UK record labels association, the BPI, in July 2022.

Kwame Kwaten - Co-Chair

Kwame Kwaten is MD of Ferocious Talent, an artist services company covering, artist management, label services, music consultancy, and in house production, which manages acts such as George Ogilvie, Blue Lab Beats, Jodie Abacus, Caitlyn Scarlett, Steve Brown (Laura Mvula/Rumer producer co writer), writer and producer Jack Gourlay (Jess Glynne/Tom Odell/Jack Garrett), and The Collier among others.

Kwame’s own writing and production work include work for Mick Jagger, Tom Jones, Ultra Nate, Seal, Mark Morrison, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Daryl Hall - as part of D-Influence productions. They also co-produced classic pop hits like ‘Wishing On A Star’ (Jay Z), and ‘You Might Need Somebody’ (Shola Ama), and remixed Mark Morrison’s 'Return of the Mack'/'Crazy'/'Lets Get Down'.

Born May 13th 1967 in London Hackney, Kwame Amankwa Kwaten began his musical career learning the ins-and-outs of the production world at ‘Courtyard Studios’, home of new band "On a Friday" who then a year later changed their name to Radiohead. Kwame spent two years at Courtyard learning from Chris Hufford how to operate a mixing desk and to use what he calls his best instrument - his ears .

In 1989 a session musician called Steve Marston approached Kwame with an invitation to join his exciting new band D-Influence as keyboard player. D-Influence self released their first album, and, after a plug from Tim Westwood on Capital FM, soon inked their first record deal with Acid Jazz Records before signing to Atlantic for their biggest album ‘Good 4 We’. D-Influence accomplished many powerful moments such as supporting Michael Jackson, Prince, and James Brown, to name a few. Also performing as Bjork’s backing band (still on YouTube) on her debut Jools Holland performance performing ‘Aeroplane’.

D-Influence soon turned to a production group, producing and remixing work for Mick Jagger, Seal, Tom Jones and more. However it was Shola Ama that broke D-Influence as mainstream producers. Kwame personally found Shola. Hearing her humming while walking past each other, Kwame auditioned her on the platform of Hammersmith station, then signed her to Freakstreet Records; producing her with D-Influence productions at the helm of her album. The D-Influence produced single “You Might Need Somebody" went on to break radio airplay records for that year, while her debut album ‘Much Love’ sold over a million copies 

Kwame has always made a conscious effort to involve and open doors to young people to get into the music business. He started the Urban Music Seminar (now known as The Ultimate Seminar of which he is a co-director of alongside Andrea and Nicky Charles) - this is regularly oversubscribed and over-attended. The seminar bridges the gap between the classroom and the boardroom, bringing in other industry leaders such as other managers and heads of labels. Kwame also runs internship and work experience placements through his current management work and consultancy work.

On joining the Equity & Justice Advisory Group, Kwame commented: "My earliest memory was being asked to come to The Brits / BPI HQ - at first being nervous and wondering why was I being called. Then being an instant fan of many of the people in the room - the job at hand was pretty big - we were being asked to truly advise the BPI & The Brits and explore diversity firstly to The BRIT Awards and then take a wider look into to the industry and advise there too. We all checked that this was not going to be a set of pointless meetings and then quickly came to getting on with the job at hand. This meant regular meetings everything from looking at the voter base for nominations and process to talking through categories and music types. It also meant talking through what we felt was wrong and how we could change it. It got heated at times but always felt like it was moving in a forward direction. Slowly the contribution of the group became apparent on TV where it mattered at the first BRIT Awards after the groups formation - categories started to become more diverse and by the third BRITs after our formation Stormzy / Dave / Celeste took to the stage. I went to it and personally couldn’t have been prouder of our groups part in it. There is still much work to do but I’m hopeful that we can make a difference. The Equality & Justice Advisory Group stands for just that! EJAG all the way!" 

Arit Eminue MBE

Arit Eminue MBE is an award-winning People Development & Future Talent consultant who works with companies in the creative industries to recruit and retain talent, empowering individuals to realise their potential in careers they enjoy.

Awarded an MBE for Further Education in the Creative Industries, Arit is the former founder and director of the multi-award-winning recruitment and training company, DiVA Apprenticeships. Under her leadership, the company supported over 2000 individuals into jobs in companies such as All3 Media, Universal Music, the BBC, ViacomCBS, CNN, October Films, WarnerBros, Sony Music and many other well-known brands. Arit led the delivery of the BRITs Apprenticeship Scheme and the UK Music Apprenticeship Scheme, both supporting the next generation of music talent. In its final year, the company distributed £2.6m in grant funding to support the governments' Kickstart Scheme, supporting 100 businesses and 350+ young people.

Arit sits on the Equity Justice Advisory Group (EJAG), which contribute to steering the BPI’s Equality, Diversity and Intersectional work for its members, award shows, events, and The BRIT Trust. She is also the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion delivery partner for membership organisations such as the BPI, IMPALA, and the Association of Independent Music (AIM) designing and delivering a range of training initiatives to their member companies.

A sought after trainer, speaker and contributor, Arit is a LinkedIn Learning instructor and regularly features in top tier media outlets such as ITV News, Times Radio and media publications such as Red Magazine and Stylist, and ITV news. Her YouTube and Instagram channels provide viewers worldwide with tips on how to build careers they love either through employment, entrepreneurship or a mixture of both.

Photo Credit: Andy Commons

Indy Vidyalankara

Indy Vidyalankara is the founder of Indypendent PR, a boutique music PR, comms and brand consultancy, with clients such as Nitin Sawhney, Youth, Jules Buckley, Tomorrow’s Warriors, Girls I Rate, Gary Crosby OBE, Carla Marie Williams, Ayanna Witter-Johnson, TuneCore and more.

She is currently part-time Head of Communications at pioneering talent development organisation and charity Tomorrow’s Warriors. Prior to that she served for two years as Head Of Strategic Communications at leading music charity Help Musicians, where she led the strategic comms for a diverse and innovative programme of external communications, campaigns, partnerships and events, such as mental health service Music Minds Matter.

Indy is an accomplished Communications executive with a diverse career spanning over two decades across music, media and third sector in high profile organisations such as Sony Music UK, Saatchi & Saatchi, with 11 years at the BBC in publicity across BBC Radio 1, Radio 1Xtra and BBC TV working on some of the country’s most popular TV entertainment formats.

As well as being a member of the BPI Equality and Justice Advisory Group, she is a member of the UK Music Diversity Taskforce, a trustee of Parents In Performing Arts, a trustee of media charity One World Media and on the BRITS voting academy. She is a passionate advocate for diversity, social responsibility and engaging audiences through purpose-driven and cause related, compelling storytelling and content.

She has successfully led teams, contributed to positive culture change, managed reputation, delivered high profile coverage and significantly increased influence and engagement within private and publicly owned organisations during periods of challenge, growth and change.

Indy has handled a myriad of complex comms issues and crises across her career, advised and worked closely with Chairman and CEO level stakeholders and handled the PR for some of the country’s biggest talent in music, TV and radio.

Indy was the first woman of colour in the role of Sony Music UK Director Of Communications, her second tenure at the major label following her 3 year stint at Columbia Records, where she started her career in music.

She has also been part-time Head of Communications at youth talent development organisation and charity Urban Development.

On joining the Equity & Justice Advisory Group, Indy commented: "I was working with Carla Marie Williams in launching her powerful movement GIRLS I RATE in 2016 when I introduced her to Ged Doherty, who invited her to the BRITs on the year of #BRITSSOWHITE. Soon after the awards, I was invited to a special meeting chaired by Ged to discuss how the BPI can do better with the BRITs. It felt like an incredibly important time to be having this conversation with the BPI and I was impressed with their humility, the organisation took the feedback and promised to do better. Soon after I joined the voting academy, which was being diversified hugely as part of the changes. I also joined the then named BPI Diversity Committee and contributed behind the scenes, alongside industry professionals I hugely respect in improving the diversity of the awards show. It has been chaired skillfully by Ged to look at a variety of issues around the diversity agenda in the music industry over the last four years. I’m glad to say the BPI and the BRITs has indeed stood by its promise to do better, seeing its most diverse awards to date this year, highlighted by Dave’s blistering performance - what an incredible celebration for diversity. The group has now evolved into EJAG, The Equity & Justice Advisory Group and the conversation is still important now, never more so in fact! It is there to work together to help steer the BPI’s diversity work and push for change, create discussion and education for all of the brilliant and talented people in the industry. We can’t afford to slow down now and I’m excited for the work we can do and the change we can make, as we start to see a real and authentic shift in the collective agreement for the value of equality, diversity and intersectionality."

Mervyn Lyn

From an early age Mervyn knew he wanted to be involved in music. While at college he became a fairly recognised name in the DJ fraternity working his way up the industry through retail in record shops, selling the music he loved.  He was soon recruited by Blues & Soul magazine but in 1986 his big break came when he was snapped up by Virgin Records and has been a music executive ever since.

During a successful career spanning over 32 years, Mervyn ran Sleeping Bag Records in Europe, was GM at Motown International before joining BMG as Head of R&B Repertoire. He remained with SonyBMG through the merger and took on the role of VP Marketing in the new fully owned Sony Music Entertainment. He left Sony Music after 18 years, having served in a number of senior roles including Vice-president Global Marketing (Europe), Vice-president Marketing and Vice-president Strategic Partnerships.

He is now a founding partner of a strategic partnership agency that works with many of the world’s leading brands and agencies who are keen to promote themselves in the world of Music & Sport.

On joining the Equity & Justice Advisory Group, Mervyn commented: "It’s never a surprise to get a call from Ged to right racial wrongs, I’d been down that road before when he was my Chairman at Sony. That time we ended up having tea with the then opposition leader, David Cameron explaining to him that all rap wasn’t negative and that there were plenty of positive messages out there that just needed amplification.

Around the time of “Oscars So White” Ged called me to see if I could hook up a coffee with a prominent music artist who had been quoted for views of The BRITs nominations without understanding how artists qualified. A few calls later meeting was on and I held on tight to hear the outcome. The outcome was that Ged wanted to assemble his own version of ’The Avengers’ to shake up the way voting was undertaken at The BRITs and attempt to make it more representative of the audience buying music.

Throughout my 35+ years in the music industry I’d gathered a directory of like minded folks would have loved to redress the balance so reaching out to some conscious pals was easy. It’s been an amazing journey so far with plenty more to do but the equality checkpoints are being reached and confidence in our work is making all the right noises in the places of influence. It’s going to be a monumental task to eradicate all forms of discrimination in the business just as it is in society as a whole but it has to start from somewhere and and I’m delighted to be a part of this amazing EJAG team."

Ben Price

Ben Price is an Artist Manager with a focus on disability integration in the music industry.

Following a career as a tour manager, Ben began to shift his focus into management after learning of a degenerative eye condition, meaning inevitably in time he would need to come off the road. Harbourside Artist Management was established in 2020 to help bridge the apparent gap between disability arts and pop culture.

Based in Bristol, but with an international roster, Harbourside Artist Management represents Viktoria Modesta, Lucy May Walker and Musa Motha. The company also helps to curate international events with artists outside their roster, ensuring there is integration of artists with disabilities across the sector.

As well as sitting on the BPI’s EJAG committee, Ben is also due to join the Attitude is Everything board of trustees in March 2023.

Originally from Sheffield, Ben became a tour manager in 2013 with clients down the years including Donny Osmond, Bananarama, Shayne Ward, Rebecca Ferguson and Lucy Spraggan, as well as talent outside of music such as Gino D’Acampo, Paul Hollywood and Sir Bradley Wiggins.

On joining the Equity & Justice Advisory Group, Ben commented: "I am delighted to be part of the BPI EJAG team, helping to drive change in the music industry. As one of our members for disability, I am determined to make sure the issues affecting people with disabilities are represented and our voice is heard. Diversity, equality and inclusion have come a long way in recent years but there is still so much to do in increasing membership of people with disabilities across the sector, and making sure there are no barriers preventing the success of artists with disabilities, who at the moment are very under-represented."