In our latest roundup, we present eight rising professionals from various parts of the biz whose dedication and effort make their superiors look good.

This week's entrants will also find their faces in our latest mag. Lucky for them, we're told the pages burn nicely, which could come in handy during this cold snap.

Kelly Ford
Senior Creative Director, AWAL

Ford, who began her career at Weller Media Agency, where she worked with the likes of Ellie Goulding and eventually co-led the shop’s global design team—was AWAL’s first in-house creative director. Aside from creating imagery for Laufey’s Grammy-nominated Bewitched, Ford co-produced 180° visuals for AWAL’s first U.S. immersive showcase, headlined by Little Simz. She’s presently designing campaign essentials for Maddie Zahm, Angie McMahon, mxmtoon and Blake Rose. As a teen, Ford had her own makeup-tutorial channel on YouTube. We could use some tutorializing.

Read Davis
VP, Digital, Big Loud Records

Davis fondly recalls the team effort expended to execute the livestream of Morgan Wallen’s surprise Nashville concert—his biggest cinema-quality such outing to date—promoting the March 2023 release of One Thing at a Time. More recently, Davis has been devising marketing strategy for singer-songwriter Stephen Wilson Jr., among other acts on the Big Loud roster. Long before he was crafting digital rollouts and seizing opportunities for Hailey Whitters, he played guitar for her at a handful of shows in the 2010s. Our musical skills are limited to the triangle.

Rachel Wein
A&R Manager, Prescription Songs

Among Wein’s career achievements, she inked Maddie Zahm to her first pub deal and helped her song “Fat Funny Friend” go viral. The Chicago native was also proud to see clients Joy Oladokun, Parson James and JORDY play Lollapalooza, the festival she grew up attending. She’s lately worked with artists like Spellz in Lagos, Nigeria, Lxandra in Finland and Greyson Chance in the exotic locale of Oklahoma. Fifteen minutes before meeting President Biden, Wein split her pants. Most people split when they see us—even if it means leaving their pants behind.

Sam Sciarra
Head of A&R, Mad Decent/Higher Ground

In 2022 Sciarra handled A&R for Diplo, the artist’s first full-length since 2004, recruiting underground collaborators like TSHA, Seth Troxler and Damian Lazarus alongside heavyweights Lil Yachty, Miguel and Busta Rhymesâ€•the album amassed 100m+ streams and earned two Grammy noms. Today Sciarra’s focused on LGBTQ+ acts like DJ Minx, Carlita and TDJ and serving as a consultant to DJ Tennis and his Life and Death label. As a child, the talent whisperer was featured on the Today show dancing an Irish jig. Some would like to see him high-kick us outta here.

Micheline Medina
Director, Artist Relations & Marketing, Sony Music Latin

Medina led the marketing strategy for Christina Aguilera’s 2022 AGUILERA—which earned seven Latin Grammy noms and one win—and Farruko’s “Pepas”— 52-times platinum in the U.S. with 3b+ streams. Next up: Prince Royce & Gabito Ballesteros’ “Cosas de la Peda,” a new project by Nicky Jam (who’s announced his impending retirement from music), further advancing the career of Manuel Turizo and March’s SOMOS MíA Women’s Month Showcase (SOMOS MIA is Sony Music Latin’s employee-resource group). Medina is an avid sneakerhead. We’ve spent a lot of time in head shops.

JJ Cassiere
Co-Founder/Agent, 33 & West

Working with DMX was a life-changing experience for Cassiere, who represented him on 2019’s sold-out comeback It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot 20th Anniversary Tour and watched him perform that year for 50k+ fans at Rolling Loud. Cassiere’s now handling tours and festival appearances for clients like Devo, Santa Fe Klan, Maoli and Tornillo and lending his skills to the Chaos and Carnage Tour, among other projects. Prior to becoming a full-time agent, he planned to pursue a career as a basketball official. We’ve been officiating music-biz losers since 1986

Blair Miller
Founder/CEO, Chaos Creators Entertainment

Miller remembers with relish watching Melanie Pfirrman, her first client after college, hit the top of the Radio Disney charts, then release a song with Pitbull and open for the Jonas Brothers. Fast forward to Miller’s supporting social media efforts for Interscope’s Kassi Ashton, who opened for Old Dominion on its No Bad Vibes Tour before making her Grand Ole Opry debut and releasing her single “Drive You Out of My Mind.” When Miller was 11, she represented the U.S. at Finland’s Children’s International Summer Village camp. We’ve been banned from Finland.

Mike Spinella
Head of Consumer Programming, SoundCloud

Spinella once worked with Beyoncé’s team on a digital campaign and got to listen to session mixes in the studio with Queen Bey herself. After partnering on a livestream initiative with Jack White, he hung out with him backstage at his sold-out MSG show. Spinella’s currently all about SoundCloud’s new Sound Advice series, on which artists who’ve broken out on the platform discuss how they’ve built community thereon and speak to their creative process. The programming chief is into long-distance cycling, which could help him keep a safe distance from us.