Tom Sturges

Tom Sturges (born June 22, 1956) is an American music executive, teacher, speaker, and author.

Tom Sturges
Born (1956-06-22) June 22, 1956
Paris, France
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Davis
OccupationMusic executive, Author
RelativesPreston Sturges (father)
Sandy Nagle (mother)

Early life

Born in France, Sturges is one of only seven Americans baptized at Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris.[1] Sturges is the third son of Preston Sturges, the Hollywood screenwriter and director who died when Tom was three years old, and Sandy Nagle Sturges. Sturges studied music at the University of California, Davis and the University of California, Los Angeles in the late 1970s.[2] At age 14, Tom sued his mother for the right to his own custody and won the case, a first time in favor of a minor.

Music career

Sturges began his career in the music industry at Clive Davis' Arista Music Publishing, where after interning and taking an opening-level position, he spent three years as a creative executive. In the two years following, Tom worked at Screen Gems Music/ EMI Music with Carole King, Gerry Goffin, and Katrina & The Waves.

In 1985, Sturges became vice president at the company, and in 1989, assumed the role as president of the Chrysalis Music Group, where he signed artists including Smashing Pumpkins, Goodie Mob, OutKast, Green Jelly, Slaughter, songwriters Antonina Armato, and Kipper Jones. At Chrysalis, he also pitched songs that became charting hits for artists including Aretha Franklin, Cher, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, George Michael, and Whitney Houston.[3]

After Chrysalis, he was president and general manager of Shaquille O'Neal’s imprint, Twism Records. He then became executive vice president and head of creative for Universal Music Publishing Group.[4] While at Universal, he signed artists 3 Doors Down, 50 Cent, Foo Fighters, Stone Temple Pilots, Jack Johnson, Owl City, Vanessa Carlton, Afroman, and Chris Brown, as well as writer/producers Mark Batson and Sean Garrett.[5] Sturges left the company in 2011.[4] He then joined the advisory board for the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music.[6] For over ten years Sturges has taught at UCLA, where he co-created the class “Music Business Now” with Jeff Jampol and Lenny Beer.[7]

Writing and production

During the 1980s, Sturges had 12 of his father’s screenplays published by the University of California Press to preserve them, and began shopping his father’s unproduced screenplays. Tom is editing a volume of his father’s letters, and also working with author Donald Spoto on one of his father’s seven biographies.[8] He also is editing several of his father’s scripts produced for the screen and stage, such as the play "A Cup of Coffee" produced by Marlene Swartz.[9]

Sturges is also the author of the parenting books Parking Lot Rules & 75 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Children, [10] “Grow the Tree You Got: & 99 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Adolescents and Teenagers,”[11] and “Every Idea Is A Good Idea: Be Creative Anytime, Anywhere” [12][13] He is also a contributor for the Huffington Post[14] and has appeared on CNN, KTLA, Fox & Friends and the Today Show. In 2013, Tom was a speaker at both the Aspen Challenge and Aspen Ideas Festival. His contributions have been featured in publications including Best Life magazine, Fast Company,[15] People, and The New York Times.

Philanthropy

Sturges has been a volunteer teacher at Grandview Elementary School in Manhattan Beach, and at the Foshay Learning Center in South Los Angeles.[16] Sturges has received over 42 commendations for his volunteerism. His philanthropy was the subject of the film Witness to a Dream, which followed his mentoring of students in the program from grade school through their entry into college. An album complementing the film was later released which featured the collective works of Tom’s mentees from 1997-2003.[17]

gollark: Wouldn't really be very useful as a light source, and I think that would break things.
gollark: I'm waiting for Steam to go through its ridiculous updating so I can "simulate" it in Universe Sandbox.
gollark: The less bad way would probably be to just install really bright lights of some sort on it, powered by fusion or something, but it wouldn't illuminate much of Mars.
gollark: Ah yes, the highly advanced space simulation engine, I should try it in that.
gollark: So you would have to reshuffle a lot of orbits and it would probably break things.

References
  1. Jacobs, Diane (1992). Christmas in July: The Life and Art of Preston Sturges. University of California Press. p. 428.
  2. Arias, Ron; Wohlfert, Lee (1988-06-06). "The Late, Great Preston Sturges' Brilliant Stage and Screen Career Gets a Big Boost from His Son Tom". People.
  3. Kawashima, Dave. "Interview with Tom Sturges, Executive Vice President & Head of Creative, Universal Music Publishing". Song Writer Universe. Retrieved 2014-10-14.
  4. "UMPG Appoints Monti Olson to Executive VP". Wireless News. Highbeam Research. 2011-11-19. Archived from the original on 2015-03-28.
  5. "About Your Instructors - Tom Sturges". UCLA Extension. University of California, Los Angeles.
  6. New York University (2011-07-13). "NYU-[euro](TM)S CLIVE DAVIS INSTITUTE OF RECORDED MUSIC ANNOUNCES THE MEMBERS OF ITS FIRST ADVISORY BOARD". States News Service. Highbeam Research. Archived from the original on 2015-03-28. Retrieved 2014-10-23.
  7. "Author Biography". Random House. Retrieved 2014-10-23.
  8. Bennetts, Leslie (1988-03-24). "A Fond Son Is Reviving Preston Sturges's Fame". The New York Times.
  9. Sharbutt, Jay (1988-04-07). "Son's Dedication Reviving Work of Preston Sturges". The Los Angeles Times.
  10. Sturges, Tom (2009). Parking Lot Rules & 75 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Children. Ballantine Books. Retrieved 2014-11-05.
  11. Sturges, Tom (2011). Grow the Tree You Got: & 99 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Adolescents and Teenagers. Tarcher. Retrieved 2014-11-05.
  12. Sturges, Tom (2014). Every Idea Is A Good Idea: Be Creative Anytime, Anywhere. Tarcher. Retrieved 2014-11-05.
  13. Sturges, Tom (2011-06-28). "5 Things I Think I Taught My Teenagers". CNN.
  14. Sturges, Tom (2014-07-14). "Get It Done: 7 Ways to Engage Creativity at the Office". Huffington Post.
  15. Sturges, Tom (2014-09-22). "The Time I Cold Called Carole King And Helped Her Write A #1 Hit". Fast Company. Retrieved 2014-11-06.
  16. Carter, Brian W. (2003-09-11). "South Central's Foshay Learning Center: High school grads 'Witness a Dream,' made possible". The Sentinel. Highbeam Research. Archived from the original on 2015-03-28.
  17. "Witness to a Dream - IMDB page". IMDB. 2014-10-23. Retrieved 2014-10-24.
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