Panos A. Panay: President, The Recording Academy (Los Angeles, USA)

Panos A. Panay is the President of The Recording Academy and presenter of the GRAMMY Awards. Prior to his current role he served as the Senior Vice President for Global Strategy and Innovation at Berklee College of Music

A serial entrepreneur, Panos A. Panay wears many hats. He is the founder of Sonicbids, Berklee’s Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship, and co-founder of the Open Music Initiative. His first book, Two Beats Ahead: What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation, which was co-authored with IDEO partner Michael Hendrix, was selected by The Financial Times as a business book of the month in April 2021 and featured in Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast.

While at Berklee, Panay led the development and execution of the college’s overarching strategic plan, overseeing its campuses in New York City, Valencia (Spain) and Abu Dhabi (UAE); the Institutes for Creative Entrepreneurship, Music and Health and India Exchange, and steered new partnerships and programme development as well as the incorporation of new technologies across the institution. He led Berklee’s expansion to China and the K-12 sector.

Prior to joining Berklee, Panos A. Panay was founder and CEO of Sonicbids, the leading platform for emerging artists to connect with music promoters, resulting in over 1 million gigs booked in over 80 countries around the world. He led the company for 13 years until after its successful acquisition in 2013 in a deal backed by Guggenheim Partners.

What inspired you to pursue a career in Innovation?
“I have always wanted to make things better, to alter things, to bring about change. Inevitably, you must innovate to accomplish change.”

As an individual with a pioneering role, how have you played a key part in bringing about change, and how are these changes enhancing your potential for future growth?
“Wherever I have been in my career, I have focused on making things better. As a young tech founder with my company Sonicbids, which became one of the first online music platforms for artists to connect with music promoters, I wanted to use the power of the then nascent internet to enable great music to find an audience, irrespective of means or success.

“When I sold my company and went to Berklee, I founded an institute to help empower creatives to make a career out of their talent, and then spearheaded the opening of Berklee’s first ever campus in the Middle East (Abu Dhabi).

“Now at the Recording Academy, I am leading the effort for expanding the mission of the GRAMMY Awards to a global community of creators. I have always been motivated by empowering creatives. All of this has undoubtedly caused me to develop since, to accomplish any of the things I have (work for a software firm, teach in a classroom, or work in the media sector), one must learn how to learn.”

What does it mean to be a leader in your industry today?
“The humility to know that learning never stops and that all success comes down to good teams, not individuals.”

How are your strategic efforts preparing your company for a future that is more sustainable?
“This requires a whole book to properly answer it. But in short, at the GRAMMYs we see a world that is becoming more globalised, a world that is becoming polycultural and one where creativity and creative content is produced, not just in places like the USA and UK, but also in cultures and regions around the world (e.g., k-pop from Korea, reggaeton from Latin America, afrobeats from Africa) that are very different from 20 or 30 years ago.

“Additionally, media consumption follows youth population growth and that is happening outside the western countries and in regions such as the Middle East, Africa, and China. So, like good footballers, we have to go where the ball will go, not where it is.”

As a successful Greek Cypriot of the diaspora, you are an ambassador for Cyprus and Greece abroad. Did your Greek Cypriot upbringing influence your road to success in any way?
“I would not be who I am if I were not Cypriot. The way I see the world, the way I relate to the world, my desire and drive to change, to progress, to innovate come down to this very elemental thing: my birthplace. Within five minutes of anyone meeting me, they will know I am from Cyprus.”

In your opinion, what impact do diasporic communities have?
“These communities have the ability to create multi-directional, multi-dimensional networks that unlock possibilities both within and across the mother country and the diaspora.”

The contemporary Greek Cypriot diaspora has a global presence and an overarching international influence. What role can the Greek Cypriot diaspora play in encouraging foreign investment to the island?
“For me, it is simple: we all must educate ourselves about the amazing and diverse talent that exists on the island, work with local authorities to better understand, and frame vision, needs, competitive differentiators and capabilities and then be the loudest possible ambassadors out there. But investment cannot be manufactured or forced. Ultimately commercial investment does not care about passport or nationality; it cares about backing innovative ideas and world changing visions. And that must be cultivated from within the island by creating the right platforms and ecosystem that fosters these outcomes. It is a bi-directional process with much of that responsibility also being placed on locals as well as the diaspora.”