Music man joins university (From Maldon and Burnham Standard)

Music man joins university

7:00am Saturday 28th July 2012 in Countywide

A LEADING figure in the music industry is to become a lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University.

John Willan has been appointed as visiting professor at the Lord Ashcroft International Business School.

Professor Willan, who has joined for an initial period of three years, is a qualified chartered accountant and will lecture on business at the university in Bishop Hall Lane, Chelmsford.

Following a music degree from the University of Edinburgh and postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music in London, he joined EMI as a classical record producer.

He then became managing director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, before moving to the BBC to build a music business for its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, which encompassed CD and DVD distribution, radio and TV arts sales, and music publishing.

Professor Willan left BBC Worldwide in 2000 to join Cambridge-based management agency Hazard Chase as chairman, a role he held until August last year.

For the past seven years he has been chairman of the International Artist Managers’ Association, the only worldwide association of classical music managements.

He is also a governor of the Royal Academy of Music in London and chairman of its audit committee.

He said: “It is the right moment for me to share the experience, contacts and knowledge I have been lucky enough to amass with those who aspire to excellence in their forthcoming careers.

"I am excited at the prospect of being able to do so as part of the developing team at the Lord Ashcroft International Business School.”