About The Speaker
Panos Panay
Panos is the Senior Vice President for Global Strategy and Innovation at Berklee College of Music; and a Fellow at MIT Connection Science. He is also the founder of Sonicbids, the founder of Berklee's Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship and co-founder of Open Music Initiative which brings together over 250 leading music, media and technology industry organizations to create an open global protocol for identification of musical rights owners and creators. At Berklee, Panos leads the development and execution of the college's long-term strategic plan; oversees its global partner network, campuses in New York City, Valencia (Spain) and Abu Dhabi (UAE); oversees the institutes for Creative Entrepreneurship, Music + Health and India Exchange; and steers the incorporation of new technologies, corporate partnerships and new program development. He is currently leading Berklee's expansion to the Middle East and China and has spearheaded multi-disciplinary collaborations between Berklee and MIT; design firm IDEO; Brown University; the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism; as well as Inspired Education Group, a network of 65 premier K-12 schools in 25 countries. Prior to Berklee, Panos was founder and CEO of Sonicbids, the leading platform for emerging artists to connect with music promoters; resulting in over 1 million gigs booked in over 80 countries around the world. He led the company for 13 years until after its successful acquisition in 2013. Awards include: Fast Company "Fast 50"; Inc Magazine "Inc 500”; Mass Hi-Tech All Stars; and Boston Globe's Game Changers. Sonicbids and Panos were also profiled in the book "Outsmart" by best-selling author Jim Champy and spoke at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in January 2019 as part of his work with Open Music. Panos has been a guest on programs such as CNBC's Squawk Box and a guest writer about entrepreneurship for Forbes, WSJ, BusinessWeek, Fast Company and Inc Magazine, among others. He is a public speaker at many universities and events around the world. Panos' first book, co-authored with Michael Hendrix of IDEO is scheduled to be published by Hachette’s PublicAffairs and Penguin Business Books UK in April 2021.