Gail Boyd was a founding member of Boyd Staton and Cave, the first African American female law firm in NYC, and represented jazz artists Randy Weston, Tommy Flanagan and Betty Carter. With Ms. Carter’s encouragement, Gail Boyd Artist Management was launched in 1991 and has nurtured the careers of scores of award-winning artists including John Clayton, Lakecia Benjamin, Tyreek McDole and Keith David and others. She is the Immediate Past President of the North America Performing Arts Managers and Agents (NAPAMA) and currently serves on the boards of the International Society of Jazz Composers and Arrangers, Cape May Jazz Festival, the Heart of Jazz and others. Over the past 35 years, Gail has also worked with governments, non-profit corporations and business corporations by providing training in topics such as racial equity, diversity and inclusion, team building, response to dominance and resistance to change.

Karen Kennedy created the Y.E.S. To Jobs internship program through A&M Records in 1987, a nationwide entertainment industry inclusion program providing qualified students with early exposure and training. She product-managed R&B, Jazz, Gospel and Pop artists at the label before being tapped to lead the start-up Perspective Records which produced Grammy winner Sounds of Blackness and Mint Condition. Karen founded 24 Seven Artist Development in 1992 where she has managed the careers of Grammy nominated artists Kenny Barron, Gretchen Parlato, David Sanchez, Stefon Harris, Jacky Terrasson, and genre bending James Francies and Camila Meza.

She is the current President of NAPAMA (North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents), serves on the Boards of Jazz Congress sponsored by Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) The Jazz Bakery Performance Space and YES TO JOBS. Kennedy has taught at The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and is a returning lecturer at the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz at UCLA in Los Angeles. She held various college administrative and teaching positions at Pitzer College, Loyola Marymount University and University of Southern California and has consulted with schools and city government in diversity training.