Published for Ivors Week 2025
This week, the spotlight is rightly on the songwriters and composers who make everything else in music possible. With the Ivors Summit and the 2025 Ivor Novello Awards happening, it’s a fitting moment to reflect on the organisation that champions them, and the work that goes into keeping it strong.
For eight months during 2023 and 2024, I served as Interim CEO of The Ivors Academy during a pivotal period of organisational change. My remit was to stabilise operations, restructure key systems, support the team and board, deliver major events, and lead the search for a permanent CEO.
Working closely with the Ivors Academy team, its Chair Tom Gray and board, we were able to achieve real progress during my time in the role. I’ll say from the outset that without the extremely detailed and open handover from the outgoing CEO it would have been a different story, as the handover was excellent. I soon found that much of what I needed to do was to some extent already in the planning, but had been overtaken by other challenges. The gap created between permanent CEOs allowed the organisation breathing space to reset, and strengthen the foundations, ready for the next phase.
Here’s what we focused on:
Stabilising the Core
From the outset, the priority was getting a clear view of the finances. We brought in a specialist finance expert to unravel legacy methods and reset the budgeting framework. Each team gained better visibility over their own numbers and heightened autonomy to manage them. That alone changed the way people worked.
This reset did mean hard decisions. We had to terminate two full-time roles as part of a necessary restructure, ensuring the organisation could move forward with confidence. I put professional HR support in place, but even so the responsibility for managing this process sat firmly with me as CEO.
My employment law training proved invaluable: knowing the framework in which we were operating, and the importance of respecting it – not just from a legal compliance perspective, but from a human one. It was essential that the restructure was carried out not only in accordance with employment law, but in a fully fair, respectful, and sensitive manner. Having a solid grounding in what the law requires and why, and how best to communicate and implement it together helped ensure that the process retained integrity throughout.
Introducing an external HR provider gave the team ongoing, professional support, and was another gamechanger. This ensured that HR issues could be managed at the appropriate level of skill, experience, and distance. This freed up the team to refocus on delivery and direction, rather than being drawn into complex personnel challenges.
Running Operations and Representing Members
Amidst the internal changes, the show had to go on, quite literally. During my tenure I oversaw the delivery of all the Academy’s core events and activities, including The Ivors Classical Awards and Media Composer Conference in November 2023 and the main Ivors Awards in May 2024.
These events are high-profile, high-stakes, and politically sensitive. They rely on sponsor relationships, board visibility, and trust from songwriters and industry. Managing them meant getting up to speed fast on governance, risk, committee structures, and partner engagement — while ensuring the day-to-day work of the Academy remained seamless.
Some of the toughest moments came from navigating sponsor issues and commercial expectations. Balancing stakeholder demands with member-first values required precision and calm under pressure — and a good deal of behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
Recruiting the Right Leadership
One of the most important responsibilities of my tenure was leading the search and recruitment process for the Academy’s new permanent CEO. This drew on my experience hiring and structuring teams in previous leadership roles and once again drew on my legal experience. This is vital in designing and running a fair, transparent process which stands up to scrutiny, be that internal or external.
Roberto Neri was the right choice for CEO. He took to the role with real energy, passion, and vision. Under his leadership, the Academy has gone well beyond the reset phase, and is thriving. The direction he’s taking is ensuring the organisation continues to grow in strength, relevance, and impact.
Approach and Mindset
This wasn’t about creating new strategy for the sake of it. My goal was to bring calm, focused leadership and reinforce the Academy’s existing mission.
I restructured systems to last beyond my tenure. I brought in external partners where needed — for HR, finance and staffing. And I worked with the team to realign their work around purpose, impact, and the organisation’s long-term health.
Empowering the Team
Much of my role was about internal leadership: helping staff across departments reconnect with the Academy’s mission, define their contribution, and support them in demonstrating their value to the incoming CEO and board.
This wasn’t so much about creating new strategy — it was more about focus. We worked together to clarify what each team was delivering, how it aligned with organisational goals, and how best to represent that work outwardly. The goal was to build confidence from within, and prepare for a new chapter led by a permanent CEO.
Delivering Through Difficulty
In February 2024, during final preparations for Ivors Week, my father died suddenly and unexpectedly. Despite the personal shock, I was able to keep up momentum, and support the team without disruption. That was only possible because of the planning, trust and structure we had already put in place by that point. I’m grateful to the team for their sensitivity, their support, and their professionalism. Together, we kept everything on track and delivered what was needed.
What It All Came Down To
Ultimately, the job was about clearing the path. Resetting the systems, calming the nerves, and supporting the team so that the next CEO could take the reins of a functioning, financially viable, and mission-driven organisation.
I’m so pleased to see the organisation thriving, with new branding, new initiatives and member services being launched, political representation reaching an ever higher level of profile and impact, all built on the strong foundations and clear direction that were handed over.
The Ivors Academy is a vital part of the music ecosystem. It exists to support the songwriters and composers on whose work the entire industry is built. It’s an extremely tough time for them, with the encroachment of AI and other forces putting increased pressure on them. Leading the Academy, even on an interim basis, was a serious responsibility and a real honour. I’m grateful to all involved for their trust, their tenacity, and their belief in the value of what they do.
This experience reflects the kind of work I offer through PTR Strategic: calm, expert leadership through moments of transition, with the legal and structural precision to back it up.
As Ivors Week unfolds and the Summit and Awards take place, I’ll be cheering from the sidelines and proud to have helped keep the wheels turning during a critical chapter, and always ready to support the next one.
Is your organisation, team or role at a turning point? If you need experienced, strategic guidance, let’s talk.