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Epidemic Sound Strengthens Board with former Docusign, Dropbox and Shazam Executives

  • Former Shazam CEO and Chairman, Andrew Fisher to become Chairperson of the Board; Andrew succeeds Vania Schlogel who will remain on the board as a director
  • Former Salesforce.com and Docusign executive Kirsten Wolberg and former Google and Dropbox executive Adrienne Gormley appointed to the board in November 2021
  • Bolstering board gears company for next chapter of growth comments Epidemic Sound’s CEO and founder, Oscar Hoglund

Stockholm, Sweden – Epidemic Sound today announces the appointment of Andrew Fisher, former CEO and Chairman of Shazam as Chairperson of the Epidemic Sound board with immediate effect. He will succeed Vania Schlogel who will remain on the board as a director.

Andrew brings a breadth of experience and a proven track record from the musictech industry during his time as CEO and Chairman of Shazam as well as extensive board experience. Andrew currently serves as chairperson of Rightmove plc, a FTSE 100 company, since January 2020 and has been on the Marks and Spencer plc board since 2015.

Vania Schlogel, founder and managing partner of Atwater Capital, a media and entertainment sector-focused investment firm, and former Epidemic Sound Chairperson, says: “Andrew’s relevant experience and deep understanding of digital economy and the music industry makes him an incredible asset for Epidemic Sound and its board. I’m thrilled to be handing the Chairperson baton over to him and I look forward to working with him as a board member.

“I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Epidemic Sound leadership and its people for their hard work over the past four years. The company has gone from strength to strength, and it has been a privilege to be part of this exciting journey. From a company worth approximately $100 million when I first became Chairperson, Epidemic Sound has now grown into a valuation of over $1.4 billion. With our recent board appointments, strong growth and a world class leadership team, I’m confident we are on the right track to write the next chapter for Epidemic Sound.”

Andrew Fisher, Chairperson at Epidemic Sound, comments: “I am delighted to be joining the Epidemic team and look forward to contributing to the continued development of such a fantastic business. I would like to thank Vania for her outstanding contribution over the past four years and am excited to have the opportunity to work with her on the board.”

The chairperson appointment follows the recent appointments of two non-executive directors, Kirsten Wolberg and Adrienne Gormley.

Kirsten and Adrienne bring a wealth of experience from their software as a service (SaaS) and digital transformation backgrounds, distinguished track records as leaders in their respective fields and extensive board experience.

Kirsten is a former Salesforce and Docusign executive who has spent her career supporting rapidly growing companies leading everything from product development to talent management. She serves on multiple boards including Sallie Mae (NASDAQ: SLM), Dynatrace (NYSE: DT) and Pie Insurance and is also committed to supporting organizations that help underserved groups find jobs.

Adrienne is a former Google and Dropbox executive who is known for putting people and customers at the heart of business as they scale globally. Adrienne is a passionate advocate of diversity and inclusion in the workplace and an active member across Diversity, Equity and Inclusion networks and organizations, as well as a mentor to female entrepreneurs in EMEA and beyond.

“We’re proud of how far we’ve come as a company over the past 12 years” comments Oscar Hoglund, founder and CEO at Epidemic Sound.

“And with the expertise and experience from these impressive executives from software as a service (SaaS) and musictech sectors, we’re confident that we’ve strengthened the board in the right areas to help us continue to serve the creator economy and navigate our next chapter in our journey.”

About Vania Schlogel

Vania Schlogel is Founder and Managing Partner of Atwater Capital, a Media and Entertainment sector-focused investment firm with offices in Los Angeles and Seoul, South Korea. Prior to founding Atwater in 2017, Vania served as a senior executive at several leading companies, including as Chief Investment Officer of Roc Nation (founded by Shawn “Jay Z” Carter), and was a member of KKR’s Private Equity team, where she specialized in the Media sector and launched the Growth Equity division. Vania began her career in the Leveraged Finance and Capital Markets groups at Goldman Sachs in London and LA.

Vania is also the Chairperson of LEONINE Studios, Germany’s leading film and TV studio, and holds several other board positions. She is currently on the Boards of Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the music IP company; Mediawan, the independent European studio; wiip Productions, the TV production company behind such hits as ‘Mare of Easttown’; Freepik, the digital content platform; Banc of California and Epidemic Sound. She was formerly on the Boards of BMG, the world’s largest independent music publisher, and Pets at Home, the retailer.

Vania is a graduate of UCLA, summa cum laude, with a degree in Business Economics and Minor in Accounting.

About Andrew Fisher

Andrew has built global digital businesses and supported the digital transformation of both private and public companies as Chairperson, CEO, Non-Executive Director and Founder. Over the past 25 years he has focused on value creation from technology innovation having delivered new monetisation opportunities and deeper fan engagement for many leading artists and composers.

As CEO and Executive Chair of Shazam, Andrew developed and executed a growth strategy to establish the world’s leading mobile music discovery service with over 1 billion users. Shazam accounted for over 10 per cent of all recorded music sales worldwide during Andrew’s tenure and launched the widely acclaimed television show Beat Shazam on Fox which is now in its fourth season and hosted by Jamie Foxx.

Andrew is currently Chair of Rightmove plc, a FTSE 100 company, a Non-Executive Director of Marks and Spencer plc and has previously been a Non-Executive Director of Merlin Entertainments and Moneysupermarket plc.

He was awarded an O.B.E. for services to the digital economy in 2016, inducted into the Digital Hall of Fame by the British Interactive Media Association and was a recipient of the International Midem Award in 2017 for services to the music industry.

About Kirsten Wolberg

Ms. Wolberg is a seasoned leader at the cross section of technology, cyber security, digital transformation and talent management. She has a distinguished track record leading technology and talent at global companies including; DocuSign, PayPal, Salesforce and Charles Schwab.

Kirsten is a current Board Director of Sallie Mae (NASDAQ: SLM) where she serves on the Compliance and Compensation committees, Dynatrace (NYSE: DT) serving on the Cyber and Compensation committees, and CalAmp (NASDAQ: CAMP) where she chairs the Cyber committee and serves on the NomGov committee. She is also an Independent Director for Pie Insurance where she chairs the NomGov committee and a Non Executive Director at Epidemic Sound where she serves on the Audit committee. Kirsten is an NACD Certified Board Director.

Kirsten is committed to organizations that help underserved groups find jobs. She is a Board Member of Year-Up Bay Area, an organization with a mission to close the opportunity divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support to empower them to reach their potential. Additionally, Kirsten is vice president of JVS (Jewish Vocational Services) executive board. JVS is an organization that transforms lives by helping people build skills and find jobs to achieve self-sufficiency.

Kirsten holds a BS degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California and an MBA degree from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern. She is also a graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Directors Consortium program.

About Adrienne Gormley

Adrienne Gormley joined N26 in 2020 as Chief Operating Officer of the digital bank. In her role, she oversees all of N26’s operations and is responsible for scaling internal capabilities and building a culture of customer-centricity and operational excellence across the organisation.

With over 20 years of experience working with some of the world’s most respected technology leaders, including Dropbox and Google, Adrienne has deep expertise across customer experience, business operations and scaling and growing international teams and businesses.

Prior to joining N26, she was VP of Global Customer Experience and Head of EMEA at Dropbox, driving global customer strategy, experience and operations across a 600 million-strong customer base, and scaling the business across multiple offices and functions with the key goal of making Dropbox “A Great Place to Work”.

Adrienne is a passionate advocate of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, with a keen understanding of how to get the best out of international teams in fast-growing environments. She is also an active member across Diversity, Equity and Inclusion networks and organizations, as well as a mentor to female entrepreneurs in EMEA and beyond.

About Epidemic Sound:

Epidemic Sound, the market leading platform for restriction-free music, is headquartered in Stockholm, heard around the globe and on a mission to soundtrack the world. 

The company has democratized access to music for storytellers. Its innovative digital rights model paves the way for creators - everyone from YouTubers to small businesses to the world’s largest brands - to use restriction-free music to take their content to the next level, whilst simultaneously supporting the musicians it works with both financially and creatively. 

The company was co-founded in 2009 and has offices in six major cities across the globe: Stockholm, New York, Los Angeles, Seoul, Hamburg and Amsterdam. Epidemic is backed by EQT, Blackstone Growth, Creandum, Atwater Capital, Alecta. AMF, and TIN Fonder and its Chairperson is Andrew Fisher, former CEO and Chairman of Shazam.

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