AAM Patrons
Bill Cullen
Bill is the managing director and founder of One Louder Entertainment, the management home to Paul Kelly, Sarah Blasko, Ball Park Music and Kate Miller-Heidke. He has been involved in the music business since leaving school, and did a long stretch working with Grant Thomas Management, working with acts such as Crowded House and The Rockmelons.
A five year stint in London followed, where he worked with the legendary Pete Jenner (manager of Pink Floyd, The Clash, Billy Bragg etc), Bill returned to Australia in 1999, and established One Louder, which has since had gold or platinum plus success with all of their current artists, as well as with Alex Lloyd, George, End Of Fashion and Amiel.
Briese Abbott
Briese is the Head of Creative Services at Kobalt Music Publishing Australia, joining the company in 2017. Prior to Kobalt Briese spent ten years in artist management, six of those on the board of the Association of Artist Managers (AAM).
She’s worked with artists such as Paul Kelly, Kate Miller-Heidke, The Drones, PVT, Cub Sport and founded management, PR and events companies. Briese got her start in music promoting live music events and hosting a community radio show.
Cath Haridy
From Warner Music Australia to Festival Mushroom Records, Cath has signed, and project managed some of Australia’s most successful artists. Moving into Artist Management, she founded Catherine Haridy Management (CHM) which currently represents Artists and Producer/Writers. In 2021, Cath was appointed to the role of CEO of the Australian Music Centre (AMC) which is the national service organisation dedicated to the promotion and support of art music in Australia. Previously, she sat in the Executive Director chair at the Association of Artist Managers (AAM): a peak body that represents, promotes and protects Artist Managers and their clients. Catherine actively contributed to designing and implementing a dynamic strategic direction for the AAM, as well as being a former Chairperson and now, Board Member. Previously, Catherine has been a board member of Music Victoria, the Community Broadcasting Foundation where she Chaired the Australian Music Airplay Grants Committee as well as participated in the Online Grants Committee and was a contributor to the Foundations’s Strategic and Governance Review completed in 2015. Catherine was also member of the board of Support Act: a registered charity established by the music industry to provide a safety net for artists and music workers in crisis, ending three terms of service at the end of 2019. She’s also an APRA Ambassador, a Patron of the Australian Music Prize as well as a respected Speaker and Advocate within the Australian Music industry.
Graham ‘Buzz’ Bidstrup
Buzz began honing his management skills early. At 12 he organised and promoted his first band at local church hall dances in Adelaide. All through his teens he was involved in the management of the bands he played in and in his late 20’s after 6 years in The Angels under the management of fellow AAM Patron John Woodruff, Buzz began a serious career in music management. He was a founding member of GANGgajang and is still involved in its management 33 years later.
Denny Burgess
Denny Burgess has been working in the music industry since scoring a nation-wide hit in 1966, as lead singer and bass player, with The Throb’s first release through Alberts, ‘The Fortune Teller’. He went on to tour with The Throb and The Whispers around Australia, before heading to the UK and playing with The Masters Apprentices for 3 years. After the group disbanded, Denny spent another 9 years based in London, performing with bands such as the George Hatcher Band and Ginger, on the European circuit.
Returning to Australia in 1982, he set up independent label Regal Records, and worked with his drummer brother Colin Burgess in original band His Majesty, after which he toured Good Time Charlie throughout South-East Asia. In 2002 Denny and his wife Clare founded Burgess Ventures, which incorporates A Red Letter Day (Event Management) and Denny Burgess Management, amongst other things, and focuses on supporting original bands. Global Battle Of The Bands and UBERfest are two of their flagship events.
Denny served on the Board of Music Manager’s Forum, and was one of the founding Directors of the Association of Artist Managers(AAM). Along with Michael McMartin and Kim Thomas, he was highly involved with formulating the Constitution of the AAM, also doing a stint as Honorary Treasurer. He is proud to be a Patron of the AAM, which he believes is an Association that can greatly benefit emerging Artists and their Managers.
Heath Bradby
Heath Bradby is a band manager with 18 years experience in the industry, and an ex member of the board of the Association of Artist Managers. Heath’s time these days is split between his role as MD of management company The Fidelity Corporation and his other hat which is Head of A&R for Warner Music Australia.
Fidelity represents the cream of Australia’s cutting edge music, artists who have gold, platinum and number 1 records to their name, as well as a fierce commitment to both touring and a long term career. Warner Music Australia are a music company that should need no introduction!
Gregg Donovan
Gregg Donovan started his career in the early 90's as a manager and local promoter in Canberra.
In mid 90’s he moved to Sydney to work as an office manager for promoter Steve Pavlovic (Pav Presents). He soon became a tour manager / promoter rep working with the likes of Fugazi, The Beastie Boys, NOFX and Ben Harper. After that he went out on his own as a freelance tour manager and worked with Pearl Jam, Ricky Martin, Shania Twain, At The Drive In, The Mars Volta, Deftones, Lily Allen, The Happy Mondays and Muse to name a few. .
Since 2001 Gregg has had his own artist management company called Step2 Artist Management. In 2007 Gregg Donovan and Stuart MacQueen decided to partner up and start a new company called Wonderlick Entertainment.
Claire Collins
Claire Collins is the director of Bossy Music, a leading independent PR & management company, which she founded after a stint working as publicist and then marketing manager at triple j in 2010. She counts ARIA-winning artist Art vs Science, J Award winner D.D Dumbo and rising acts Sycco and Mia Wray amongst her management clients and the likes of Flume, Billie Eilish, Stella Donnelly and the Laneway Festival on her PR roster. Claire sat on the board of the AAM from 2012-2019.
John Watson
John Watson is the President of John Watson Management and the associated label, Eleven: a music company. Over the last 20+ years every artist on the JWM and Eleven rosters has enjoyed either gold or multi-platinum success and the companies have helped four separate Australian artists achieve gold certifications in the U.S.
JWM’s current management clients are Silverchair, Paul Mac, Missy Higgins, Gotye, Birds Of Tokyo, Midnight Oil, The Presets plus co-managing Cold Chisel.
John Woodruff
John Woodruff has been involved in the music business for 40 years, almost all of the time in capacity of a manager working with The Angels and histmost noted success has been with Savage Garden. Across all the acts he has managed he has recieved more than 100 gold or platinum awards for albums and single sales, more than 28 million records worldwide.
John started the now legendary Dirty Pool Organisation, with Rod Willis and Ray Hear with the aim of radically reforming the face of the Australian music business and through the organisation formed management relationships with Cold Chisel, Ice House, Johnny Diesel, and The Baby Animals to name a few.
John was the founder and publisher of The Music Network; he then successfully launched the brand into the overseas market with The Canadian Music Network. John has been inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame and awarded the Order of Australia Medal.
Jane Slingo
Jane Slingo has worked in the electronic music sector since 1994. Her career path over the past two decades or so has included working as a promoter, publicist, street press editor, booking agent, tour manager and artist manager.
Jane founded Young Strangers in 2006; a boutique music business providing management services to a small roster of electronic music artists including Set Mo and Sampology.
Since 2016, Jane has been Executive Producer of Australia’s Electronic Music Conference and she is currently on the management board for Music NSW and a member of APRA’s Club Music Advisory Group.
Michael McMartin OAM
Michael McMartin was a founding member of the Music Managers’ Forum in Australia and was made an Honorary Lifetime member of the MMF (Australia). He served as Chairman and then Executive Director of the International Music Managers’ Forum (IMMF). In 2007 he helped found the AAM, the Association of Artist Managers (Australia) and in 2008 was elected to its first board of Directors.
He was a board member of Support Act, he sat on the Create Australia panel on their program for the educational standards relating to the music industry and was a member of the mediation association LEADR. At the 2007 APRA Awards, Michael was presented with the prestigious Ted Albert Award for his lifetime contribution to Australian Music and in 2009 was elected to the ARIA Hall of Fame as part of the induction of the Hoodoo Gurus.
In recent years, Michael formalised his desire to lift up developing managers, by spearheading the AAM’s Patron’s Gift; a fund that would enable opportunities to bring in diverse communities, POC and First Nations emerging Managers. This was a testament to Michael’s character. He was a man who achieved so much in his career and paved the way for Managers in Australia, NZ and all over the world, through his truly selfless spirit.
The AAM would like to pay our respects to one of our organisation’s founding fathers, Patron, mentor & dear friend, who passed away this year (2024). Michael left an indelible mark on the Australian music industry, and his loss is acutely felt within our management community which he supported and uplifted so generously.
Vale Michael McMartin (OAM).
Keith Welsh
Keith Welsh was a founding member of Australian International success story ICEHOUSE, after which he managed bands, staged events and ran an indie recording label until the mid 1990's.
From 1996 until 2010 Keith was GM and Co-Publisher of The Music Network plus it's Canadian sibling, Canadian Music Network and was also a partner in Rough Cut Music Publishing. He has a Masters degree in Dispute Resolution from the Law School of UTS and is a fully qualified, certified and practicing Mediator and Facilitator.
Currently, Keith is managing the musical interests of his long time friend Iva Davis/ICEHOUSE and those of Mat McHugh (The Beautiful Girls). He is also the Deputy Chair of MusicNSW, former Chairperson of AMPAL (Australian Music Publishers Association Limited), has served on the board of AMCOS (Australasian Music Copyright Owners Society), and is a Patron of the AAM (Association of Artist Managers).
Tom Harris
Tom started White Sky in 2002 working out of his bedroom. His first client was the indie record label Rubber Records. From there he started helping artists with their bookkeeping on the side, all the while promoting himself under the name White Sky.
Tom co-managed The Temper Trap from 2006 to 2011, taking the band from small Melbourne venues to world-wide success. He currently manages folk-pop band The Little Stevies and their kid’s music side-project Teeny Tiny Stevies.
In 2009 Tom was asked to join the board of the AAM (Association of Artist Managers) and in 2012 took on the role of Treasurer.
After nearly 20 years in the industry, Tom remains committed to his career-long passion to continually improve the way White Sky assists artists and their teams in navigating the business side of their careers.
Rick Chazan
Rick is the Founder and Director of Ground Control Music Management. He established Ground Control whilst managing Brisbane indie pop band The Boat People. Now in its 23rd year, Ground Control’s artist roster has expanded to include; Emma Louise, Kardajala Kirridarra (including Eleanor Dixon, solo), Dean Brady, Alex Hendriksson, Robbie Miller, Buttercats and Darling James. In addition to artist management, Rick spent 6 years on the QMusic board and 4 years as co-chair of the Association of Artist Managers.
Leigh Treweek
Leigh Treweek is the director of Handshake MGMT, Handshake Management is an artist management agency dedicated to creating lifelong careers through developing outstanding talent. With a focus on building partnerships of mutual respect and integrity, Handshake Management seeks opportunities that ensure creative freedom and longevity for their artists. Treweek has guided the careers of some of Australia's most loved artists including Alex Lahey, Multi multi-platinum-selling Vacations, global musician activist L-FRESH the LION and is currently cultivated brand new Australian talent.
Dan Medland
A 20-year industry veteran, Dan first came to Australia in early 2010 and set up the first ANZ office for the management company ie:music (Robbie Willians, Ladyhawke, Gin Wigmore and Passenger etc.) He is most well known for his work with Uk singer songwriter Passenger ( Aka Mike Rosenberg) where as a team they have achieved a great deal of global success over the past decade. Dan and Mike have now been working for over 18 years together and Dan now heads up the ANZ team for Nettwerk Music Group.