Outgoing UK Music CEO Jo Dipple has told Music Week that Michael Dugher – the man due to replace her in the role – is “a massive asset to the music industry”.
Dipple, who is the subject of the Big Interview in the latest edition of Music Week, out now, said Dugher is “the right man at the right time”.
Looking ahead to what Dugher, a former Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and a Labour MP for the seat of Barnsley East since 2010, will bring to the role Dipple continued: He’s a huge fan of music, a very good political operator, well-liked across the Parliamentary estate and very good at strategic thinking. His strategic knowledge of how the legislative process works will serve the sector very well in the post-2019 environment.
“The challenge is that there will be a huge noise from agriculture, manufacturing, retail, consumer goods – every single sector will be clamouring for Parliamentary time and what you need is someone that understands how the levers of legislation are pulled.”
Dipple – who held her leaving party earlier this week and plans to take some time off before considering her next move – had some words of advice for her successor too. “Look up and be brave about where you see the legislative framework for this sector,” she said. “And, even it doesn’t look like something that’s possible, have an ambition that the UK market will be the strongest that it possibly could be. We do a few things really well in this country and music is one of them. If you go anywhere in the world and say Adele, Ed Sheeran – people know them and Michael will be able to push that at the heart of the agenda.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Dipple discussed her nine year association with UK Music, looking back over a list of achievements that includes a Judicial Review of proposed copyright legislation, the Live Music Act and establishing industry-wide apprenticeship and diversity initiatives.
Read it in full here, and click here to read Music Week’s interview with Dugher.
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