Rich Bengloff is the President of the American Association of Independent Music (“A2IM”), a not-for-profit trade organization that represents over 330 dues paying Independent music labels located across the country stretching from Hawaii to Florida, that have banded together to form a central voice advocating for the health of the Independent music sector in the areas of advocacy, commerce and member services. Rich has spent much of his career in the music and entertainment industry, during the past 25 years having worked at both music labels and music distributors at both independent (RED, Combat/Relativity/In Effect) and major music companies (Sony Music and Warner Music) as well as WNYC Radio, serving as a senior level operations and financial executive. Rich is a graduate of SUNY New Paltz, has an MBA from Columbia University and is an adjunct professor of Communications and Media Management at the Fordham University Graduate School of Business and Hunter College.

Mr. Harrison is the Vice President, Business Affairs, at Pandora Media Inc., focusing on the acquisition and licensing of content. A frequent speaker on music licensing issues, Mr. Harrison was an Adjunct Professor of music law at the University of Texas School of Law from 2009 to 2013 and is currently a Lecturer in music law at the University of California Berkeley Boalt School of Law. Prior to joining Pandora, Mr. Harrison held various positions at commercial music service provider DMX, Inc., including Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel. As General Counsel, Mr. Harrison led DMX’s efforts to obtain the first-ever adjustable fee blanket license from ASCAP and BMI, the result of nearly five years of litigation that was ultimately affirmed at the Second Circuit. Mr. Harrison received his PhD (Political Science) and JD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 2001.

Charles Caldas is the CEO of Merlin, the global rights agency for the independent label sector, representing over 20,000 independent labels from 41 countries. Merlin, which operates on a not-for-profit basis, focuses purely on protecting and enhancing the strength, diversity and unique interests of its members and works to ensure they are able to commercially compete in the ever-changing world of digital music.