John Kennedy (born 1953, in London) is a British

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

whose career has been largely in the record industry.

Career

Kennedy started his career as a lawyer, working at several record companies. In 1983, he set up a private agency specializing in the music industry. He was awarded an OBE in 1985 for his work as a trustee of the Band Aid Trust and

Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...

. In 1996 he accepted the post of chairman and CEO at

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

Music and Film. He was also appointed chairman and CEO of the newly created Universal UK, the largest record company in the UK, and provided the investment (on behalf of Universal UK) to launch the musical '' Mamma Mia!'', one of the most successful theatrical productions ever. Kennedy was appointed president and chief operating officer at Universal Music International, the largest record company in the world, in 2001. Kennedy,

Bob Geldof Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof (; born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer-songwriter, and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as lead singer of the Rock music in Ireland, Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved ...

and

Harvey Goldsmith Harvey Goldsmith (born 4 March 1946 in Edgware, Middlesex) is an English performing arts promoter. He is best known as a promoter of rock concerts, charity concerts, television broadcasts for the Prince's Trust and more recently the Teenag ...

produced in July 2005 the ten

Live 8 Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 200 ...

concerts and DVDs around the world. Subsequently, they were made Chevalier de

l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

by the French government. Kennedy was the chairman and CEO of

IFPI The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 19 ...

, an organization representing the recording industry worldwide with a membership of 1,400 record companies. He left the organization in June 2010.

References

British lawyers 1953 births Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire {{UK-law-bio-stub