Board of Directors

Al Bell ARE Distribution
John Fry Ardent Music, LLC
Jim Lattimore, III
Blair Taylor Memphis Tomorrow
James Alexander JEA Music
Alex Coleman WREG-TV
Paul Chandler Germantown Performing Arts Centre
J. De DeHart Minglewood Hall
David Edmonds FedEx Services
J.W. Gibson II Gibson Companies, Inc.
Hemant Gupta Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada, PLLC
Onzie Horne Beale Street Merchants
Jon Hornyak The Recording Academy Memphis Chapter
Al Kapone Alkatraz Productions
Dan Marks First Tennessee
Alex Matlock La Prensa Latina
Deanie Parker South Memphis Music, Inc.
Clifton Phillips Isis Ventures, LLC
Phil Trenary Pinnacle Airlines Corp.
Tate Yawn Merrill Lynch

Board of Advisors

Lynn Harless Just In Time Entertainment
Paul Harless TennMan Digital
Jim Phillips Pinnacle Investments
Knox Phillips Sam Phillips Recording
Steve Zito Memphis Grizzlies/FedExForum
Craig Grossman
Kris Kourdouvelis, The Warehouse

Memphis Music Foundation Staff

Dean Deyo
President

Dean Deyo has been a prominent figure in the Memphis business community for the past three decades. In 2005, Dean retired from Time Warner after serving as the CEO of the mid-south division of the company for over 25 years. The division was headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. He received numerous awards and honors during his business career including the National Cable Television industry’s highest award, the Corporate CEO Volunteer of the Year in Memphis and was awarded the key to the City of Memphis for his civic accomplishments.  After retiring from the corporate world, Deyo’s next contribution to Memphis was as a champion for leadership development. Dean served as the first chairman of the Leadership Academy, a non-profit that develops community leaders through world-class leadership training programs. He continues to serve on the Academy’s board of governors. Dean helped bring together over 50 organizations and businesses as chairman for the Coalition for a Better Memphis. The non-partisan, non-profit organization rates candidates running for local public office and publishes a voting guide of these ratings before each election.  At the end of 2006, Dean returned from retirement to lead the Memphis Music Foundation. The same year he received the MPACT Memphis MPACTMakers Award for Role Model of the Year. He currently serves as the Governors Commissioner for West Tennessee on the Tennessee Film and Music Commission and on advisory board for several University of Memphis Schools, plus the board of advisors for Hope House and MPACT.

Catrina Guttery
Business Manager/Artist Relations

Catrina Guttery is a graduate of the University of Memphis with a degree in Entertainment Management. The Memphis native has worked for the local talent agency Colors, alongside managing local acts since 2003. Catrina lists one of the highlights of her career as helping secure two of her acts slots at the 2005 Voodoo Music Festival at AutoZone Park in Memphis. In 2007, her tenacity gained her a coveted position with the William Morris Agency in Nashville. However, Catrina’s commitment to promoting Memphis music kept her in the city with a mission to help Memphis bands move to the forefront of the music industry. Catrina has volunteered over the years with League of Latin American Citizens and The Recording Academy. Currently, she spends her free time volunteering for Latino Memphis and participating on the advisory committee for the Hispanic Cultural Center (Cultural Centro). She also serves on the board of the Memphis Chapter of the National Hispanic Professional Organization (NHPO) and was recently elected to serve on the board of the Memphis Chapter of NARAS.

Pat Mitchell Worley
Director of Development and Communications

Pat Mitchell Worley has devoted most of her professional life to Memphis, music, and the arts. A Memphis native, she began her career at Memphis In May, where she helped coordinate media for the city’s largest festival. She followed that with a stint as on-air personality for Flinn Broadcasting’s alternative formatted station WDRE broadcasting to Little Rock and Memphis. The position garnered her a cult following with fans calling themselves “Friends of P” after a popular song. She also served as music and promotions director at Memphis’ short-lived all-blues radio station WOWW in the mid ’90s. During this time she also worked as an independent publicist and writer for record labels such as Warner Brothers, Atlantic and RCA. In 1996 Mitchell Worley joined the staff of the Blues Foundation, where she oversaw all of the international nonprofit’s communications and educational efforts and helped produce events like the W.C. Handy Blues Awards, the Lifetime Achievement Awards, and the International Blues Challenge. In 2003, she served as interim executive director of the 3,000-member foundation. As an independent producer and presenter, Mitchell Worley worked on projects from the Stax Music Academy’s annual Soul-A-Thon fundraiser, and the Memphis Area Music Awards to publicize projects for Willie Mitchell, Isaac Hayes, and the BarKays. From 2004 to 2006, Mitchell Worley served as program director of the nonprofit MPACT Memphis where she spearheaded efforts to involve area young professionals in the cultural and political life of the city. Most recently, she worked in development at ArtsMemphis, where she also ran Bravo Memphis, an introductory arts patronage program for young professionals. Mitchell Worley has also worked as a freelance music journalist, regularly penning articles for over a dozen regional and national publications. In 2009, she celebrated her tenth anniversary as host of “Beale Street Caravan.”

Memphis Music Resource Center Staff

Cameron Mann
Director

Cameron Mann is a native of Memphis who has been immersed in the music scene in Memphis since his return from college.  A graduate of Tulane University, class of 2000, Mann earned a B.A. in American Studies with a minor in Philosophy.  While in New Orleans, Cameron learned the basics of show promotion through watching friends at Superfly Promotions promote Jazz Fest and Mardi Gras shows four years before they would create the Bonnaroo Music Festival.  After leaving New Orleans, he worked in Worldcom’s London office in the International Wholesale Marketing Department where he stayed until the summer of 2001. Upon his return to Memphis in early 2002, along with his father, Cameron helped to start Young Avenue Sound Studio and a Production Company/Label called Memphis Records.  At the studio, Cameron’s responsibilities ranged from studio management to bookkeeping, as well as marketing and promotions for the studio and production company.  He also worked closely with many local acts and some national acts in a number of capacities such as event promotion, booking, as well as selling studio time.  He has been a member of the Recording Academy since 2002 and spent four years serving on the Board of Governors for the local Memphis Chapter of the Recording Academy, serving alongside Chapter President, Al Kapone as the Secretary of the Chapter for one year.  In addition, Mann has served on the Board of the MSC Music Commission for the last two years.  Cameron volunteers his time with the Cooper Young Business Association helping to coordinate Music and Production for the Annual Cooper Young Festival which promotes original Memphis Music and Crafts every year in September.  More recently, he is a member of local Hip Hop group Lord T and Eloise and has played national festivals such as SXSW in Austin, Bonnaroo Music and Arts in Manchester, and CMJ Music Marathon in NYC.

John Miller
Music Resource Center Coordinator

Born and raised in Memphis, John Miller fell in love with music at an early age, studying classical, jazz, and pop piano, orchestral French horn, and anything else he could pick up along the way.  After attending Mississippi College and Birkbeck College (part of the University of London), he graduated with a BA in History and Prelegal Studies before returning to Memphis in 2004. At that time, John concluded a 3 year working relationship with a national law firm (Wyatt, Tarrant, & Combs) and set out to gain more experience as the sole paralegal for a smaller local firm (Parrish & Shaw), before entering the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis in 2005.  While there, he was a member of both the Intellectual Property Society and the Sports and Entertainment Law Society, gaining practical knowledge from interaction with attorneys familiar with both local and national issues affecting the music industry.  Through a relationship fostered there, he was introduced to Ward Archer, President of Archer Records, and was immediately hired in the summer of 2007.  During his 3 years at the independent label and studio, John provided legal services including contract drafting and negotiations for everything from international distribution and licensing arrangements, to film and television licensing deals, as well as administering copyrights, the label’s two publishing catalogues, directing marketing, pr, and social media, and serving as a label representative to festivals and conferences.  On the side, he served as editor and contributor for a local and national arts blog with other writers based out of NYC, DC, and Chicago.  He has been a member of the Blues Foundation and the Folk Alliance as well as the Memphis Music Foundation before joining as Coordinator for the Foundation’s Music Resource Center in June 2010.

Isaac Daniel
Program Assistant

Isaac Daniel is a native Memphian with a foundation of knowledge from Berklee School of Music, Baltimore City School for the Arts, Millington Central High School and The University Of Memphis. A University Of Memphis alumnus, Daniel pursued degrees in music and communication with a concentration in jazz-studio performance and recording technology. In college, Daniel developed his musicianship through studies in music composition, theory and performance which was expressed through his talents with saxophones, clarinet, flute and piano. In addition to performance, Daniel also has thorough knowledge and experience within the industry and business side of music.  Beginning his industry career as an intern for The Recording Academy (NARAS), he expanded his horizons through other internships and job opportunities at recording studios like Ardent and The Legendary House of Blues Recording Studios. Daniel officially began his career at House of Blues in Memphis, where he worked exclusively for 4 years and considers one of his home studios. HOB was where he became proficient with engineering, producing, composing, singing, track making, supervising interns and developing talent. This beginning allowed Daniel to work with a wide variety of recording artists and producers from Memphis and around the country. Daniel currently is a producer/engineer/musician who works at a variety of recording studios in Memphis. Young Avenue Sound is a home for Daniel, and he feels any studio in Memphis is a second home. He is a member and/or supports Audio Engineering Society (AES), The Recording Academy (NARAS), the Memphis Music Foundation and the Memphis Music Commission. He has participated in events such as Young Producers Boot Camp, Memphis Youth Manifesto, In The Studio Workshops, Heal The Hood, Plug-in Memphis, Rising Stars, Beat M Up, to name just a few.  With Memphis music as a foundation to his talents and passion, Daniel has plans to help reinvigorate the Memphis music scene by supporting local events, working as a producer, engineer and musician to help strengthen develop the Memphis music business economy.

Marcela Pinilla
Spanish Program Consultant

Marcela started singing at the age of 5, but her career professionally started nine years later in 1995, when she was invited to be part of a project called “Dreams Machine.” Following that, offers to perform started coming her way, and a new artist was born. In 1998, Pinilla had her first tour overseas when she was invited to perform in Asia for a four-month tour. In 1999, she was asked to join the popular touring band Larrayan. She traveled with them through Jakarta for three months and then returned once again to Colombia, where she began to work steadily in the Colombian music scene, receiving calls for studio session work and high profile performances. By 2001, then a successful and well-established vocalist in Colombia, Pinilla traveled to Malaysia for an eight-month engagement playing Latin music. It was then that she discovered jazz, and her style changed forever. Inspired, Pinilla implemented jazz to her performances and as she gained recognition in the region, she was invited to perform at several notable jazz festivals across the Asia-Pacific region, including Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Beijing, Manila, Jakarta, Brunei and Bali. Pinilla spent three years in Singapore learning from this melting pot of musicians before moving to Memphis to embark on yet another regional evolution. In Memphis, she met American blues and soul first-hand, and has incorporated them into her style ever since. “It’s very soulful here,” Pinilla said. “I learned more about the emotion, about people playing from their heart.” In addition to her solo projects, Pinilla performs and records with several local Memphis bands and artists, including “A Message from Memphis” with the Bar-Kays, Orquesta Caliente and Gerard Harris’ World Soul Project. She currently lives in Memphis with her husband, a piano and a garden gnome.