PRESENTATION & INTERVIEW- Michael Bizenov

Featured Speaker:

Michael Bizenov, President of Sound Royalties

President of Sound Royalties, Michael Bizenov, is a highly skilled executive with extensive experience in finance, strategic planning, and business development. Bringing a principled entrepreneurial management style to the company, Michael leads our innovative business, helping to shape its vision and lead its continued growth.

Over the course of his distinguished career, Michael has successfully built and grown several companies, and has a proven track record of taking many promising businesses to the next level. Utilizing a diverse background in financial services, business strategy, management development and more, he is renowned not just for his keen acumen in planning and strategy, but also for his relentless commitment to effectively creating and executing business plans that foster growth and success.

Previously, Michael was a consultant for UBS and Litchfield Road Consulting, where he provided senior advisory support on business and strategy development, program implementation, financing, and overall business transformation. Prior to that, he spent 20 years in various executive roles at Sterling National Bank, helping grow the bank’s assets from under $1 billion to $15 billion and culminating his tenure there as the institution’s President of Consumer Banking.

Michael’s passion for music began at a young age when he learned to play the drums, and carries on today as an avid supporter and fan of a wide variety of music and the people who create it. Michael is also active in many community and charitable activities, including creating and leading a teen leadership development and mentoring program at a community center in Queens, NY, work as a trustee in various not for profit organizations, and serving as a long-time youth basketball coach and a board member of his local Catholic Youth Organization.

Michael Bizenov to interview:

Jeff Levy, Partner at Ritholz Levy Fields LLP

Jeffrey Levy is a senior partner at the law firm of Ritholz Levy Fields LLP, one of the leading boutique music, television, independent film and fashion law firms in New York City ( www.rlfllp.com ), with offices in Los Angeles and Nashville, in addition to its main office in NY.

Jeff’s practice focuses on intellectual property transactions in the music, film, television, video game and fashion industries.  His clients include: some of the largest corporations in America that transact with the music industry, record labels and distributors, music publisher, recording artists, artist managers, music executives, television producers and fashion models.

He has practiced entertainment law since 1987, when he joined the law firm of Cooper Epstein and Hurewitz, which specialized in music, film and television. In 1990, after a position as Sr. Attorney in the Law Department at Arista Records, Jeff became an associate at Grubman, Indursky & Schindler, the then-largest music law firm in the country. Jeff left private practice in 1994 to become a business affairs executive in the recording industry. In 1999 he was appointed the head of Business & Legal Affairs at Atlantic Records.  In 2002 he became managing partner at the music law firm of Davis Shapiro Lewit Montone & Hayes. He has been with Ritholz Levy Fields since 2004.

Jeff has been featured as one of Billboards Top 100 Music Attorneys, has been a board member of several charities, including Petra Nemcova’s Happy Hearts Fund which supported children who suffer from natural disasters. He has raised funds for the UJA’s Entertainment Division and represented the Jonas Brothers’ Change for the Children Foundation. Jeff was a member of the Board of Directors of the NYC co-op in which he lives with his wife and children (55 Central Park West), from 2012-2018. Jeff continues to study classical and jazz piano, and was a background actor in the penultimate episode of “Succession”. He received his J.D. at the University of Southern California (1986) and his B.A from the State University of NY at Albany (1983).

Dan Zupnick, Partner at Ritholz Levy Fields LLP

Dan Zupnick is a partner at the law firm of Ritholz Levy Fields LLP. Dan’s practice is focused on commercial, corporate, and intellectual property transactional matters for clients in media & entertainment, action sports, apparel and consumer goods, and hospitality industries. Dan advises these creative businesses on operational matters as outside general counsel, and guides on landmark events in the business lifecycle such as formation, financing, and exit transactions.

Dan’s corporate and commercial law practice involves counseling on the structuring and financing of business entities and joint ventures, corporate governance and operations, dispute resolution, relationships with service providers, and product distribution agreements. He has served as a key legal advisor in numerous acquisition transactions and private placement offerings.

Dan is also an experienced intellectual property attorney, routinely counseling on copyright and trademark strategy, protection and enforcement matters, the prosecution and defense of infringement allegations, intellectual property licensing arrangements, and endorsement agreements.

Before joining Ritholz Levy Fields, Dan served a fellowship with the Pro Bono Partnership, assisting with the transactional legal needs of non-profit organizations throughout the Tri-State Area, followed by engagements with the Business and Legal Affairs Department at Sony Music Entertainment, and two boutique business and entertainment law firms in Manhattan.