NEW YORK, December 3, 2001 - Gary Churgin, President / CEO, Harry Fox Agency (HFA) today announced that Michael S. Simon will be the agency's new senior vice president of licensing and chief of strategic development and marketing. Simon will oversee HFA's licensing, marketing, business and strategic development activities. He joins HFA today and will report directly to Churgin.
Previously Simon was the executive vice president of business affairs and general counsel for Razorfish, Inc. where he guided the company's impressive growth from 18 people in 1996 to over 2,000 by 2001, and oversaw the acquisition of 18 companies with an aggregate acquisition value of nearly one billion dollars. He also formed Simon Ventures, an artist management and consulting company that currently manages "The Honeydogs".
Prior to Razorfish, Simon was senior director of legal affairs at Polygram Records where his responsibilities included negotiating and drafting music industry agreements, including exclusive recording artist, distribution, music publishing, recording joint ventures and video licensing contracts. He also served as an associate in several law firms, specializing in entertainment and intellectual property matters.
Simon received his Juris Doctor from the Columbia University School of Law. His undergraduate studies were completed at Amherst College where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
"Michael's music and entertainment industry background, coupled with his remarkable business development skills add substantial depth to the Harry Fox team as we continue our transformation as the industry's technology and service leader in both digital and terrestrial rights clearance", stated Churgin. "His industry contacts, as well as his extensive background in negotiating music industry agreements, will be key in meeting our objectives of strengthened relationships, superior service and new business opportunities."
"I'm delighted to be joining Harry Fox. I look forward to working with Gary and his team as we capitalize on Harry Fox's opportunity to be a thought leader while building sustainable growth and infrastructure for the benefit of clients and constituents" stated Simon.
The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. provides an information source, clearing house and monitoring service for licensing musical copyrights, and acts as licensing agent for more than 27,000 music publisher principals, who in turn represent the interests of more than 160,000 songwriters. Besides the core business functions of licensing, collections, and distribution of royalties, HFA conducts periodic record company and other user audits on behalf of its principals. HFA is the licensing affiliate of the National Music Publishers' Association.
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