LONDON (CelebrityAccess) — British Phonographic Industry, a trade group representing UK record labels, announced the appointment of Dr Jo Twist OBE as the organization’s new Chief Executive Officer.
Twist, who, since 2012 has served as CEO of UKIE, the trade body for UK games and interactive entertainment, is expected to assume her new post at BPI in July.
BPI’s current interim CEO, Chief Strategy Officer, Sophie Jones, will continue in that role until Twist joins the organization. Jones assumed the post temporarily following the departure of Geoff Taylor MBE in December.
Dr. Twist brings more than 2 decades of experience to her new role at BPI and she sits on a number of industry-focused boards, committees, and advisory groups Creative Industries Council, Creative UK Council, and the AHRC Creative Industries Advisory Group, representing the games and interactive entertainment sector and advocating on its behalf.
She is a Vice President for games accessibility charity SpecialEffect, Patron of Safe in Our World mental health and games charity. She is also a King’s Appointed Trustee for Royal Historic Palaces, a Wiggin Foundation Trustee and stepped down as a BAFTA Trustee and Chair of the Games Committee in 2022. Jo is a Ravensbourne University Visiting Fellow and a Visiting Lecturer for Goldsmith’s University in the School of Computing.
In 2016 she was awarded an OBE for services to the creative industries and was awarded the MCV Women in Games award for Outstanding Contribution. She was also named as one of the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 Most Influential People in 2019 and entered the Computer Weekly Hall of Fame in 2021.
“I am delighted to join the BPI at such an exciting time for British music. Having spent the last 25 years working across cutting-edge creative industries I look forward to working with YolanDa, Sophie and the team as they support their label members and the wider music community in fully realizing the value of music – growing the market, boosting exports and ensuring the recognition and backing the industry deserves,” Dr. Twist said of her new role at BPI.
“The industry’s talent, so passionately nurtured by innovative major and independent record labels, is world leading, and the BPI plays an important role in creating an environment where labels and their artists can thrive and the next generation of talent can be supported into the industry,” she added.
“On behalf of the BPI, its Council and members, I am excited to welcome Jo Twist as our new Chief Executive. In what was a competitive recruitment process she showed great passion, drive and a big heart for music. Jo has outstanding credentials and, along with her fresh perspective, she will bring a rich breadth of experience garnered in games and across the creative industries. This will prove invaluable to the BPI and to UK recorded music as we navigate great changes in our industry. We wish her all the very best in the role and keenly look forward to her arrival this Summer,” stated YolanDa Brown OBE DL, BPI Chair.
