Power 50 - #27: Leanne De Souza

Famously making her way intro music management in 1992 with only $20 and an active phone line to her name, Leanne De Souza’s energy, passion, determination has made her a force to be reckoned with, representing artists such as Thelma Plum, The Medics, Kate Miller-Heidke, and Katie Noonan between 1995 and 2015 when she stepped back from “front-line management”.

Named Executive Director of the Association Of Artist Managers in late 2016, De Souza’s experience has made her uniquely suited to her new role; to “protect, promote and develop artist managers” and their artists. Since, the AAM has secured core and program funding from APRA AMCOS to grow membership services and mentoring programs, as well as funding for the Fast Track Fellowship for two Victorian managers to undertake and international job placement for two months.

As a recognised industry leader, De Souza was invited to take part in many of 2017’s largest summits, conferences and conventions. In November she gave a keynote speech at Game Changers, “a series of happenings in Hobart to develop and celebrate women in music” - two things that De Souza does ardently and often. The same month De Souza was in Melbourne moderating Face The Music’s Start Me Up: Home Truths On Starting A New Business In Music With Bonafide Entrepreneurs, a panel combining business expertise from some of the industry’s most successful self-starters.

In September, De Souza returned to BIGSOUND, where she was once the Executive Programmer. This year she sat on the Hook-Ups: Gender and Music panel and facilitated the Management in a Crisis masterclass, an important two-hour examination of how to react when an artist in your is care being nely ground by the media meat grinder. De Souza is now set to join Bigsound’s CEO Joel Edmondson in leading a panel at SXSW in Austin this March entitled “Is Culture Change In The Music Industry Possible?”

2017 was also the second year of A Rock & Roll Writers Festival, a celebration of music and writing, curated and co-founded by De Souza. The growing event has already spread to Melbourne, with plans for a national tour in 2018.