Binta Niambi Brown, is the Head of Operations & Strategy of Keep Cool/RCA Records, since February 2012. She’s also the founder of oma lilly projects, an artist management and production company.
Work Experience
Ms. Brown was Artist Manager/Music Head at Haight, where she led Chance the Rapper's recorded music & publishing operations.
She is Co-Chair and Co-Founder of the Black Music Action Coalition.
Ms. Brown was CEO and Founder of Fermata Entertainment Ltd., an artist development and management company. She's also the founder of Big Mouth Records.
Ms. Brown is a former corporate lawyer at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and a Partner in the corporate practice of the New York office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. During her ten year legal career, Ms. Brown has represented corporate clients in connection with over $66.5 billion of merger and acquisition transactions (including the then largest oil & gas merger in US history), public and private debt and equity offerings, and secured debt financing.
Board and Advisor Roles
Ms. Brown has also advised general counsel and other senior management officials of Fortune 100 companies with respect to corporate governance matters and other special situations, in addition to providing general corporate advice to early stage businesses.
She has advised global entertainment and media companies such as Dreamworks, Time Warner, Universal, the Washington Post Co., HBO, AOL and IAC. She has served on the advisory boards of many early stage technology companies including 2U Inc., which IPO'd on the Nasdaq in 2014, in addition to serving on the corporate board of education company TCI, Inc.
Ms. Brown holds leadership roles in the SummerStage Music Festival (New York) and the American Theatre Wing (where she is a Tony voter), and is a trustee or board member of each of the American Theatre Wing, New York City Parks Foundation, Barnard College, Columbia University, and is an advisor to the New York Philharmonic.
She has served as an adviser to New York governors Elliot Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo and to Hillary Clinton when she was a senator.
Accolades
She's recognized as one of America's top black fundraisers, tapping her extensive network to fund political, humanitarian, and cultural initiatives.
Ms. Brown was named as one of Fortune magazine's 2012's 40 Under 40 and 2011's "40 Under 40" professionals in Crain's New York Business. She was also selected as a "Young Global Leader" for 2012 by the World Economic Forum.
Education
Ms. Brown received her BA (cum laude) from Barnard College and her JD from Columbia Law School. She was also a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Centre for Business and Government, and Executive in Residence for the New Orleans Startup Fund.
