Deborah Dugan

Deborah Dugan is an American executive who was the first female president and CEO of the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammy Awards, in 2019 and 2020. She served as the president of Disney Publishing Worldwide from 2002 to 2006, CEO of British media company Entertainment Rights from 2007 to 2009, and CEO of (RED) from 2011 to 2019. She has been the co-chair of the storytelling nonprofit the Moth since 2008.

Deborah Dugan
Known forFormer president and CEO of The Recording Academy
Former Chief Executive Officer of (RED)
TitlePresident and CEO of The Recording Academy
Term2019-2020
PredecessorNeil Portnow
SuccessorHarvey Mason Jr. (interim)

Dugan has contributed to the Huffington Post and Forbes.com and appeared on Mad Money with Jim Cramer, PBS News Hour, and NPR's All Things Considered, among other outlets.

Early life and career

Dugan grew up on Long Island and in Florida. Her father passed away when she was six, and she worked from a young age. She attended the University of Florida, majoring in education, making the dean's list, and graduated. She then went to and graduated from the University of Utah Law School.[1][2] She became a business affairs attorney on Wall Street[3] while doing pro-bono work for Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.[1]

Career

She transitioned to working at SBK Records, where she worked with artists like Wilson Phillips then when the company merged with EMI/Capitol Records, she became its executive vice president serving musicians like Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Tracy Chapman, and Joan Baez.[1][4] She then worked for Disney Publishing Worldwide for eight years, becoming its president in 2002,[3][5][2] where she oversaw 275 magazines, including Discover and Disney Magazine,[6] and published more than 4,000 new books, leading a team of more than 500 employees worldwide and generating $1.8 billion in global retail sales.[4] She then worked for British media company Entertainment Rights as president and CEO of the North America division,[4] restructuring it and growing its biggest content work, one year, 27 percent.[2]

CEO of (RED)

In 2011, Dugan started work as CEO of (RED), co-founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver[1] after interviewing for a job that wasn't the right fit.[7] The nonprofit foundation aims to enlist the help of private companies and citizens in the global fight to eradicate AIDS[8] in Sub-Saharan Africa[9] (it now tasks itself to also combat the effects of Covid-19).[10] She rearranged her life to travel to Africa,[1] among other things, and, under her tenure, (RED) began to partner with Coca-Cola, Salesforce, Bank of America,[11] Vespa,[7] Snapchat, Nickelodeon, Moschino, Jeremy Scott,[12] Latin America's telecommunications companies Claro and Telcel, German multinational SAP, among others.[8] Notable campaigns under Dugan also include the Super Bowl, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Beats by Dre, Starbucks, and Amazon. During this time the foundation, with a team of 25 in New York, reached $660M for the Global Fund[7] and impacted the lives of more than 110 million.

From 2011 to 2015, Dugan also contributed to Huffington Post, in 2017 and 2018, to Forbes.com.[5][13] In 2017 she was awarded PTTOW!'s Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award.[14][15]

Recording Academy presidency

In response to the outrage over the low female representation at the 2018 Grammys and then-CEO/President Neil Portnow's comment that women musicians needed to "step up" in order to achieve parity,[16] a 18-person task force led by Time's Up co-founder Tina Tchen was created to study the Recording Academy's problems and make recommendations.[3] After a search, on May 8, 2019, its board of trustees confirmed that Dugan would be its next president and CEO. She began her tenure on August 1, 2019, succeeding Portnow. Dugan was the first woman president of the $60M nonprofit,[16][17][18] and her contract was for three years.[19]

On January 16, 2020, Dugan was relieved of her duties and placed on administrative leave, accused of bullying her assistant, whom she inherited from Portnow,[19] resulting in the assistant taking a leave of absence.[20] Recording Academy Chairman Harvey Mason Jr. took over as interim president and CEO.[21] In response, Dugan made claims that the organization was complicit in corruption, citing "voting irregularities, financial mismanagement, 'exorbitant and unnecessary' legal bills, and conflicts of interest involving members of the academy’s board, executive committee and outside lawyers".[20][22] On March 2, 2020, the Recording Academy announced that it had officially fired her. A letter was sent to its members informing them of the action taken by its board of trustees.[23][24]

Awards
  • Forbes's 100 Most Powerful Women, Social Entrepreneurism issue[25]
  • Elle's Top Women To Help Change the World[25]
  • Innovation Fellow, Columbia University Business School[25]
  • Tribeca Disruptor Awards Fellow[25]
  • PTTOW!'s Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award

Board memberships and associations

Dugan is on the board of the Moth,[25] co-chairing it since 2008,[2][26] and the creative nonprofit Girl Effect.[27] She is on the board of advisors of CITYArts.[28]

She was senior advisor to the Tribeca Enterprises Board from 2009 to 2011, where she evaluated and executed revenue streams for Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal's company and rebranded its school.[2]

Dugan is a member of Association of American Publishers, MPA – The Association of Magazine Media, and International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.[2]

References
  1. Aswad, Jem (Apr 16, 2019). "Who Is Deborah Dugan, the New Boss of the Recording Academy?". Variety. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  2. "Deborah Dugan". Linked In. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  3. Lewis, Randy (January 18, 2020). "Sexism? Cronyism? Mismanagement? After sudden ouster of Grammys chief, spin and finger-pointing begin". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  4. DeMott, Rick (16 May 2007). "Dugan New Head of Entertainment Rights North America". Animation News Network.
  5. "Contributor: Deborah Dugan". Huffington Post.
  6. Bing, Jonathan (5 March 2002). "U saddles up 'Seabiscuit'". Variety.
  7. "That Moment When: Deborah Dugan". PBS News Hour via Facebook. 30 May 2019.
  8. "Deb Dugan: Chief Executive Officer (RED)". One.org.
  9. "(RED) CEO Deb Dugan: The Business Of Ending Disease | Mad Money | CNBC". CNBC via YouTube. 11 October 2016.
  10. "COVID-19 Threatens to Destroy Progress in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS". Red.org. 6 July 2020.
  11. "Part 1: Welcome and Corporate Overview — Salesforce World Tour New York Keynote 2016". Salesforce via YouTube. 25 May 2016.
  12. Hutchins, Robert (8 June 2017). "Nickelodeon and Red raise money for AIDS with SpongeBob Red". licensing.biz.
  13. "Deborah Dugan: Contributor ForbesWomen". Forbes.com.
  14. "Nelson Mandela Changemakers". PTTOW.com. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  15. "Deborah Dugan, CEO, (RED) @ WORLDZ 2017". WorldZ Tribe via YouTube. 2017.
  16. Aswad, Jem; Halperin, Shirley (18 March 2019). "Recording Academy Narrows Search to Replace Neil Portnow".
  17. "BOARD OF TRUSTEES APPOINTS DEBORAH DUGAN AS PRESIDENT/CEO OF". GRAMMY.com. May 8, 2019. Retrieved Jan 26, 2020.
  18. Newman, Melinda (20 September 2019). "New Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan Pledges More Diversity, Inclusion: 'I'm In Awe of the Potential'". Billboard. Retrieved Jan 26, 2020.
  19. Peck, Emily (24 January 2020). "Deborah Dugan Tried To Fix The Grammys. Instead She Says She Was 'Ruined' By A Boys Club". Huffington Post.
  20. Sisario, Ben (2020-01-16). "Grammys Leader Deborah Dugan Removed 10 Days Before Ceremony". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
  21. Lewis, Randy (Jan 17, 2020). "Ousted Grammys chief: 'We will expose what happens when you "step up" at the Recording Academy'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved Jan 26, 2020.
  22. Ifeanyi, K. C. (2020-01-23). "Ousted Recording Academy CEO punches back and claims the Grammys are fixed". Fast Company. Retrieved 2020-01-25.
  23. France, Lisa Respers (2 March 2020). "Recording Academy fires Deborah Dugan". CNN. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  24. Aswad, Jem (Apr 13, 2019). "Deborah Dugan to Succeed Neil Portnow as Recording Academy Chief". Retrieved Apr 23, 2019.
  25. "Board & Committees". The Moth.
  26. Dugan, Deborah (26 February 2018). "Purpose and Career: What Life's Patterns Reveal About What Really Matters". Forbes.com.
  27. https://www.girleffect.org/who-we-are/our-people/deborah-dugan/
  28. "CITYarts Board of Directors". CITYarts.


(interm)

Cultural offices
Preceded by
Neil Portnow		 President of The Recording Academy
2019–2020		 Succeeded by
Harvey Mason Jr.
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