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Rob Light
Partner & Music Agent - Creative Artists Agency

Rob Light is the head of CAA's music department, a member of the management board, and partner at the agency. Light oversees all of CAA’s music agents in Los Angeles, Nashville, New York and London, providing strategic counsel on concert tours and event bookings worldwide.

Light joined CAA in 1984 and was named head of the music department in 1998. Under his leadership, the department has helped CAA become the preeminent talent agency for artists across many music genres. Respected throughout the industry for his innovative and foresight regarding changes in the business environment, Light has led CAA’s music department to new heights by implementing an integrated services model that leverages CAA’s expansive and deep resources within the department and across the agency.

Michael McDonald
Manager - John Mayer

Michael McDonald has been deeply involved in the music industry for well over a decade. After six years on the road as tour manager for Dave Matthews Band, he co-founded ATO Records in 2000. A year later he established his own artist management company, Mick Management, developing an esteemed roster including five-time Grammy winner John Mayer, Ray LaMontagne, Brett Dennen, and I Nine.

Donald Passman
Partner and Lawyer - Gang, Tyre, Ramer and Browin, Inc. and author of "All You Need to Know About the Music Business"

Donald S. Passman is the author of “All You Need To Know About The Music Business”, and a graduate of the University of Texas and Harvard Law School. He practices law with the Los Angeles firm of Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown, and has specialized in the music business for over 25 years. Passman has lectured extensively, including lectures at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, USC Law School, UCLA Law School, Los Angeles Copyright Society, and The Beverly Hills Bar Association. He is also the author of two novels, “The Visionary” and “Mirage”, published by Warner Books.

Jason Garner
CEO- Live Nation Music, North America

Jason Garner oversees Live Nation’s concert promotion and venue activities in the United States and Canada.  He also oversees the company’s House of Blues division.  He has worked for Live Nation and its predecessors since 2003, when he joined the company as the lead booker for its Latin division, Vivelo.  He quickly rose to the position of General Manager of the Latin division and eventually moved to the company’s Los Angeles headquarters to oversee the Live Nation’s North American Touring Division and the following year its North American Amphitheatre programming. Garner most recently served as President, North American Music at the company. He began his career in concert promotion booking bands at a local San Jose, California flea market while still in high school, eventually becoming Northern California’s dominant Spanish language concert promoter.

Ian Rogers
General Manager, Music, Yahoo! Inc.

As General Manager of Yahoo! Music, Ian Rogers leads the continued growth and development of the world’s #1 online music site.  Rogers oversees strategy for the site’s products and services such as Yahoo! Music Unlimited and LAUNCHcast Radio as well as key partnerships and original content and programming. 

Ian Rogers joined Yahoo! in 2003 with the company’s acquisition of Mediacode.  Before joining the Yahoo! team, Rogers was founder, president and CTO of Mediacode, a media software developer.  In his role at Yahoo!, he is responsible for the growth and continued development of Yahoo! Music as a compelling, global music destination for consumers, record labels and advertisers. 

Rogers has been building digital media applications since 1992.  He created the second-ever, music-related Web site and built many of the original promotional sites for the music and movie industry.  He was CTO at rVision, one of the first Web design firms until 1998, then was part of Nullsoft, an early leader in the digital music revolution and makers of Winamp, SHOUTcast, and Gnutella.  Rogers was the President of New Media for the Beastie Boys' record label and lifestyle brand Grand Royal, where he was responsible for the first same day digital/physical album release.

Since 2003, Rogers has served as Director and then VP of Product Development for Yahoo! Music, overseeing the development of the world's #1 Music Web site, Music.Yahoo.com as well as Yahoo! Music Unlimited, Yahoo!'s unlimited music subscription service.