Ife Okonkwo: POWER UP Industry Professional
Bio: Ife works at the intersection of grassroots music culture, partnerships, and artist development, with a focus on building the infrastructure needed to position the UK as a global leader in grassroots talent development. Ife currently heads partnerships at Youth Music, the UK’s leading charity equalising access to music. Each year, Youth Music invests £11m into more than 500 grassroots organisations and emerging music creators, focusing on young people facing the greatest barriers to participation. His partnerships build creative and financial infrastructure, working with the likes of Apple, Spotify, Sony Music Entertainment, EMPIRE, Beatport, Wingstop and Levi’s. He successfully led the £2m Rescue the Roots campaign supporting at-risk grassroots music organisations. Prior to Youth Music, Ife led fundraising and strategy for an Afro-Caribbean grocery startup, raising $2.5m seed investment and developing the national go-to-market strategy, being the highest amount raised for a seed-stage black female-owned startup in the UK.My ambition is to strengthen UK grassroots infrastructure and create sustainable global pathways for particularly underrepresented creators and communities to thrive in the modern music era.
Concise Description of activity: Develop international industry relationships and artist development expertise to strengthen global<br />infrastructure and pathways for UK grassroots music creators