John Willan: Chairman

A former chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford, John qualified as a Chartered Accountant, went on to read music at Edinburgh University and has a diploma in piano from the Royal Academy of Music of which he is also an Honorary Associate. In the 70's and early 80's he was a classical producer for EMI working with many top artists including Muti, Argerich, Kremer, Gavrilov, Domingo, Levine, Ozawa, David Munrow, Rattle and Tennstedt. In 1985 he became managing director of the London Philharmonic. During his tenure, the orchestra won the sole residency of the Festival Hall and attracted the best line up of international conductors a London orchestra had seen for decades. In 1995 the BBC approached him to build a music division for its commercial subsidiary, BBC Worldwide. Within three years he had established BBC Music Publishing and the BBC Legends label building a top line income of £6.5 million. John left the BBC in 1999 having joined the board of the Cambridge based music agency, Hazard Chase.  He was chairman from 2000 until August 2011.  On 1 January 2006 he was appointed chairman of the International Artist Managers' Association and in September 2009 was made a governor of the Royal Academy of Music.