#Harvey Mason jr. Named New Recording Academy President and CEO

“There is nothing more rewarding than having the trust and respect of your colleagues and peers,” Mason said in a press release. He continued:

I am honored to have been appointed to continue to lead the Recording Academy on our transformative journey. While I had not initially expected to be in this position, I remain deeply invested in the success of the organization and am motivated to help us achieve our greatest ambitions. I will serve humbly with a steadfast commitment to building a more inclusive, responsive and relevant Academy.

Dugan was officially fired in March of 2020. She had been placed on administrative leave for unspecified misconduct on January 17 of that year. Following that, she filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on January 2020 where she levied explosive allegations of sexual harassment, racism, and multiple instances of corruption and conflicts of interest within the Academy.

Among Dugan’s allegations in her EEOC complaint was that former Recording Academy head Neil Portnow had raped a woman after she had performed at Carnegie Hall, which Portnow called “ludicrous.” Dugan replaced Portnow as Recording Academy CEO in August 2019, making her the Academy’s first female president and CEO. He was pressured to step down from the role following his 2018 comment that women in the music industry need to “step up.”

The focus of Mason’s tenure as interim President and CEO has been to the improve transparency of the Grammy Awards, make changes to voting procedures, and increase diversity within the Recording Academy. Since he took on the role, the Recording Academy has launched a new Songwriters & Composers Wing as well as the Black Music Collective, implemented the final recommendations of its Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, and hired the first-ever Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer. Under Mason’s leadership, MusiCares raised and distributed over $24 million to assist struggling artists during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
“We are delighted that Harvey will remain at the helm and continue to steer the organization through this pivotal time,” search committee co-chairs John Burk and Leslie Ann Jones said in a joint statement. “As we journeyed deeper into our extensive search, it became clear that the best person for the job was Harvey. We are immensely impressed by the remarkable work he has done during his interim tenure and look forward to the continued evolution of the Academy under his effective, results-driven leadership.”

Recording Academy Vice Chair Tammy Hurt added: 

I want to commend the search committee and our partners at Heidrick and Struggles for orchestrating a robust and exhaustive search for our next President and CEO. I am not surprised that they faced a significant challenge in finding candidates that would meet the standard that has been set by Harvey during these past 16 months. He has led the Academy through one of the most difficult periods in our history. As a music creator himself, he has provided hope, inspiration and a vision for the future that we are well on our way to achieving. We are all thrilled that he has agreed to become our permanent CEO and will continue to lead us into the future.

Last November, Mason spoke with Pitchfork about his role as interim President and CEO. When asked if he had any interest in staying in the position on a longterm basis, Mason said:

“Nope, I’m here on a volunteer basis temporarily until we find a full-time person who can run the Academy. I am continuing to work in the studio. … I love the Academy, I love the work that they do, but I am looking forward to getting just the right person in place who can continue the momentum and the good programs we started in the last year.”

Read “The Explosive Grammys 2020 CEO Scandal, Explained” and “Grammy Chief Harvey Mason jr. Talks 2021 Nominations, Justin Bieber, Category Changes, and More.”