peermusic - The Independent Major

RALPH PEER, II
Chairman and CEO, peermusic

Ralph Peer, II, Chairman and CEO of peermusic, oversees a global network of music publishing companies operating from 35 offices in 28 countries. With well over a quarter of a million titles in the company's catalogue, and songs that vary from country, blues, jazz and pop to Latin, concert and rock 'n' roll, Ralph Peer, II directs the largest privately owned company of its kind in the world.

A respected authority on copyright, Ralph Peer, II is vice president and director of the National Music Publishers' Association (U.S.A.) and the Harry Fox Agency. He is a lifetime director and past president of the Country Music Association and served for many years as a publisher/director of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers). In the international arena, Peer is immediate past Chairman and vice-President of the Paris-based International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) and was honored at MIDEM 1998 as "Music Maker of the Year." He served for a number of years on the board of MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society, U.K.).

He is a former Trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA for whom he delivered the 1983 Jean Geiringer lecture in International Copyright Law. In 2001, the American Songwriters Hall of Fame honored him with their music publisher's award.

Peer serves as CEO of digitalpressure.com, Inc., peermusic's digital distribution service. He was a founding director of eMusic, the first record company with a primary focus on the Internet as a platform for the sale and electronic distribution of music and owner of the immensely popular RollingStone.com site.

Peer received his Bachelor's degree from Stanford University and his Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Business School. In 1999, Peer was awarded an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Witten/Herdecke University in Germany.

Mr. Peer is based in San Francisco, California.

BILL GORJANCE
Chief Financial Officer

Bill joined peermusic in 2006, bringing with him 20 years of telecommunications industry experience. His top executive roles in the US and Europe have covered finance, marketing, strategy and change leadership.

Bill's musical background includes having sung for several years with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Seattle Opera Chorus and various chamber groups. He has served on the boards of music and media organizations, and until recently was a non-executive director of i-mate, a London based developer and global distributor of mobile smart phones and PDAs. He earned his BA and MBA from Harvard University.

KATHY SPANBERGER
President & Chief Operating Officer- peermusic Anglo American Region

Kathy Spanberger, President of peermusic's Anglo-American Region, is one of the top ranking female executives in the music publishing industry.

Born in New York City, Spanberger moved to Los Angeles with her family at the age of eleven. Her father was West Coast advertising director for Billboard Magazine and Kathy cannot remember a time when she did not want to work in the music business. After graduating from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts in economics, Spanberger began working at peermusic. She served as Managing Director of peermusic Australia and then returned to Los Angeles as General Manager for the United States.

Spanberger became Vice President of peermusic's U.S. companies a short time thereafter. She was named Senior Vice President of peermusic's U.S. operations in 1993, supervising the staffs at peermusic's New York, Los Angeles and Nashville offices, and overseeing the activities of peermusic's U.S. Latin music division including the opening of a new Miami office. In 1995, Kathy was named Chief Operating Officer of peermusic North America that added the territory of Canada to her slate of responsibilities. In 2000 she was promoted to President of the same companies and in 2003 the United Kingdom came under her aegis.

Spanberger is responsible for the firm's companies in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. She also serves as a Director of the international publishers South African and South East Asian offices. Active in a number of industry organizations, she is a former President of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) and a current member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

"The most important thing to me is being able to help creative people achieve their goals," states Spanberger. "peermusic has a solid worldwide network of offices with decentralized management that focuses personally on songwriters. We work one-on-one with artists to develop careers and we never sacrifice service for size."

peermusic recently celebrated its 75th anniversary as the world's pre-eminent independent music publisher. As the company carries on its quest for musical excellence, Spanberger continues to focus on the personal attention that has distinguished the firm since Ralph Sylvester Peer started the company in 1928.

MICHAEL KARNSTEDT
Chairman-peermusic Europe

After joining Peer in 1966, as Assistant to the Copyright Manager, Michael worked his way up the managerial ladder, culminating in his appointment as European President in 1991. Active in many areas of the business, Michael is also an officer and board member of the German Music Publishers Association (DMV). In this function he holds the position of treasurer and chairman of the soundcarrier committee. He is board member of ICMP and was elected deputy member of the board of GEMA in 2000. In 2003 he was elected as full member to GEMA's board of supervisors.

MANOEL PINTO
Managing Director, Brazil Office

A publisher and producer of numerous Brazilian albums, Pinto has been with Peermusic since 1970. His work has placed peermusic Do Brazil in the number one position as the best independent Brazilian music publisher. He has created countless hits for musicians like Chitaozinho & Xororo, Zezé Di Camargo, Luciano and Xuxa, among others. His production of the latter's hit "Ilarié" sold more than 3 million copies in Brazil alone. Manoel is presently producing platinum-sales acts like Rick & Renner and Daniel, who sells more than 1,000,000 copies per record. Manoel is the President of ABEM (the Brazilian performance Society), having held this position for five consecutive terms.

RAFA AGUILAR GRABOWSKI
President, Latin Region

President since January, 2003, and Managing Director of peermusic Española and peermusic de Portugal, Aguilar is a "young veteran" of the music industry. He was graduated in Sciences of Information (Ciencias de la Información), specifically in Advertising and Public Relations (Publicidad y Relaciones Públicas) from Universidad Complutense of Madrid, Spain. After playing in different local Pop & Rock bands he worked for different well known music publishing companies such as Emi Music Publishing, independent Publisher Bocaccio Ediciones, and Warner Chappell, where he was in charge of the International Creative department. He started at peermusic in September, 1995, as International Creative Manager and was appointed Managing Director in March, 1999. In 2001 his responsibilities were expanded as he became Latin American Regional Director. He´s currently board member of SGAE (Collecting Society of Spain) representing the publishers.