Aus Music Publisher's Association Elects New Board Members As GM Plans Exit

The face of the Australian Music Publishers Association (AMPAL) is about to change as the organisation ushers in a newly elected batch of board members and prepares for the departure of current general manager Jeremy Fabinyi.

Fabinyi informed AMPAL that he would be stepping down in the new year at their recent annual general meeting, at which existing managing director of music sales Jane English and Frankdon Music's Matthew Donlevy were elected to the board.

The AGM also saw board re-election for Universal Music Publishing's Bob Aird, Kobalt's Simon Moor and Origin Music's Philip Walker.

Fabinyi has been AMPAL's general manager since 2012, when he returned to Australia following a decade abroad in Europe in senior positions at international authors' rights organisations CISAC and BIEM (in Paris) and MCPS and PRS in the UK. Prior to his stint in Europe, Fabinyi was the principal of artist management company Mental Management (The Wiggles, Mental As Anything, The Cockroaches and more) as well as the chief executive of AMPAL & AMCOS during the 1990s. He also held managerial roles with Festival Mushroom Records, Festival Publishing and Festival Studios.

“On behalf of the AMPAL Board and the members, I would like to express our thanks to Jeremy for his dedication to AMPAL and his excellent stewardship of the company," AMPAL chair Matthew Capper said in a statement. "Jeremy has done an incredible job in guiding and invigorating the organisation, and we are very thankful to have had someone of Jeremy’s calibre and expertise to represent the interests of AMPAL and its members."

Fabinyi echoed Capper's enthusiasm at the news, saying in a statement: "I have enjoyed my time at AMPAL immensely and look forward to the organisation carrying on its good work on behalf of Australian and New Zealand music publishers and the authors and composers they represent."

The board has begun the process of recruiting a replacement.