BPI - CEO

Dr Jo Twist OBE (she/her) was appointed CEO of UK record labels association the BPI in July 2023 after heading up Ukie, the trade body for UK games and interactive entertainment, from 2012-2023.

With a 25-year background across interactive entertainment, technology, education, creative media and youth culture, Jo has wide-ranging experience in high-level influencing, stakeholder managementand organisational change.

She sits on several boards and advisory groups including the UKRI AI Strategic Advisory Team and Creative PEC Board. She was Chair of the BAFTA Games Committee (2013-2022) and a BAFTA Trustee (2018-2022) and was Ambassador on the Mayor of London’s Cultural Leadership Board until 2024.

Jo is also a Visiting Lecturer at the Dept of Computing, Goldsmith's University and VP for games accessibility charity SpecialEffect, Patron of the QUAD Derby, Patron of mental health and games charity Safe in Our World, a Wiggin Foundation Trustee, BRIT Trust Trustee and King's Appointed Trustee for Historic Royal Palaces.

In 2016 she was awarded an OBE for services to the creative industries and was recognised for Outstanding Contribution in the MCV Women in Games awards (2016). She was also named as one of the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 Most Influential People in 2019 and entered the Computer Weekly Hall of Fame in 2021. She was awarded her Doctorate in online communities, young people and identity in 2001.

Music Venue Trust - CEO

Mark is the co-owner of Tunbridge Wells Forum, a venue he founded in a toilet over 30 years ago. Since then, Mark has split his time between various music activities; he spent 20 years as CEO of the award-winning music charity Rhythmix, which used music to works people in challenging circumstances, from pupil referral units to dementia wards. He owns Outstanding Music, a 360-degree music company with a specialism in alternative Latin music and a portfolio of clients that includes Disney, Warner Brothers, CBS, ABC and leading US brands. 

Mark founded Music Venue Trust in 2014, a charity which works to protect, secure and improve Grassroots Music Venues across the UK. MVT represents over 800 venues, members of the Music Venues Alliance, and has campaigned to change laws and policies, to gain greater recognition for the vital work GMVs do and make them more sustainable.

Mark is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a regular speaker at international conferences (ILMC, SXSW, CMW, LAMC, Eurosonic, Primavera Sound, Big Sound, Reeperbahn). He was one of the h100 winners 2015, won the CC Skills Music Award 2017, was NME’s Person of the Year in 2020. Since then he has won a number of awards for his work.

PRS Foundation - CEO

Joe Frankland is CEO at PRS Foundation, the UK’s leading independent charitable funder of new music and talent development.

Since 2000 PRS Foundation has given more than £49 million to over 9,000 new music initiatives by awarding grants and leading partnership programmes that aid music sector development. Widely respected as an inclusive, collaborative and proactive funding body, PRS Foundation supports an exceptional range of new music activity through direct grants to music creators and through support for pioneering organisations.

6 out of the last 7 Mercury Prize winners have received PRS Foundation support at crucial career moments. And the charity has supported recent BRITS, NI Music Prize, Welsh Music Prize, SAY Award, Ivors Composer Award, AIM and RPS Award-winners - perhaps more than anything demonstrating how timely investment in exciting, diverse and innovative talent works to produce critically acclaimed new music and to sustain music creator careers in the UK and internationally. 

Grantee success stories including Little Simz, Wolf Alice, Dave, Cherym, Sam Fender, Years & Years, AJ Tracey, Hannah Peel, Anna Meredith, Yola, The Arborist, Glass Animals, Ezra Collective, Jade Bird, Ghetts, Shiva Feshareki, LEMFRECK, Nadine Shah, Lostboy, Imogen Heap, IDLES, Kae Tempest, Kojey Radical and English Teacher.

PRS Foundation co-founded global gender equality initiative, Keychange and launched the POWER UP initiative which tackles anti-Black racism in music. 

Joe joined PRS Foundation in 2014 and has run flagship schemes including the PPL Momentum Fund and the International Showcase Fund while launching several new initiatives. He was appointed as CEO in 2019.

Frankland previously worked at the forefront of talent development, helping to break artists and build careers at Generator in the North East of England, and is passionate about supporting innovative organisations and a diverse range of music creators across the UK.