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Deborah Dugan

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Deborah Dugan
Known forFormer president and CEO of The Recording Academy
Former Chief Executive Officer of (RED)
TitleCEO of Beyond Type 1
Term2019–2020
PredecessorNeil Portnow
SuccessorHarvey Mason Jr. (interim)
Children3

Deborah Dugan is an American executive who was the first female president and CEO of the Recording Academy, which presents the Grammy Awards, in 2019 and 2020. She served as the president of Disney Publishing Worldwide from 2002 to 2006, having been at the company a total eight years, and CEO of Entertainment Rights North America from 2007 to 2009, and CEO of (RED) from 2011 to 2019. In April 2022, she became CEO of diabetes nonprofit Beyond Type 1.[1]

She has contributed to the Huffington Post and Forbes.com and appeared on Mad Money with Jim Cramer, PBS News Hour, and NPR's All Things Considered, among other outlets. Dugan has been the co-chair of the storytelling nonprofit the Moth since 2008.

Early life and career

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Dugan grew up on Long Island and in Florida. Her father was Thomas Dugan, who worked for a time in the U.S. Justice Department and served as inspector general of the Peace Corps under Sargent Shriver, and her mother was a homemaker. Thomas died when she was six, and she worked from a young age. She attended the University of Florida, majoring in education, making the dean's list, and graduated. She then went to and graduated from the University of Utah Law School.[2][3] Dugan became a corporate attorney on Wall Street[4] while doing pro-bono work for Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.[2]

Career

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She transitioned to working at SBK Records, where she worked with artists like Wilson Phillips then when the company merged with EMI/Capitol Records, she became its executive vice president working with musicians like Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Tracy Chapman, and Joan Baez.[2][5] She then worked for Disney Publishing Worldwide for eight years, becoming its president in 2002,[4][6][3] where she oversaw 275 magazines, including Discover and Disney Magazine,[7] and published more than 4,000 new books, generating $1.8 billion in global retail sales.[5]

Dugan then worked for British media company Entertainment Rights as president and CEO of the North America division,[5] restructuring it and growing its biggest content work, one year, 27 percent.[3] She was senior advisor to the Tribeca Enterprises Board from 2009 to 2011, where she evaluated and executed revenue streams for Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal's company and rebranded its school.[3]

CEO of (RED)

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In 2011, Dugan started work as CEO of (RED), co-founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver[2] after interviewing for a job that wasn't the right fit.[8] The nonprofit aims to enlist the help of private companies and citizens in the global fight to eradicate AIDS[9] in Sub-Saharan Africa[10] (it now tasks itself to also combat the effects of COVID-19).[11] She rearranged her life to travel to Africa,[2] among other things, and, under her tenure, (RED) began to partner with Coca-Cola, Salesforce, Bank of America,[12] Vespa,[8] Snapchat, Nickelodeon, Moschino, Jeremy Scott,[13] Latin America's telecommunications companies Claro and Telcel, and German multinational SAP, among others.[9] Notable campaigns under Dugan also include the Super Bowl, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Beats by Dre, Starbucks, and Amazon. During this time the organization, with a team of 25 in New York, reached $660 million for the Global Fund[8] and impacted the lives of more than 110 million.

From 2011 to 2015, Dugan also contributed to Huffington Post, in 2017 and 2018, to Forbes.com.[6][14] In 2017 she was awarded PTTOW!'s Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award.[15][16]

Recording Academy presidency and settlement

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In response to the outrage over the low female representation at the 2018 Grammys and then-CEO/President Neil Portnow's comment that women musicians needed to "step up" in order to achieve parity,[17] an 18-person task force led by Time's Up co-founder Tina Tchen was created to study the Recording Academy's problems and make recommendations.[4] After a search, on May 8, 2019, its board of trustees confirmed that Dugan would be its next president and CEO. She began her tenure on August 1, 2019, succeeding Portnow. Dugan was the first woman president of the $60M nonprofit,[17][18][19] and her contract was for three years.[20]

On January 16, 2020, Dugan was relieved of her duties and placed on administrative leave, accused of bullying her assistant, whom she inherited from Portnow,[20] resulting in the assistant taking a leave of absence.[21] Recording Academy Chairman Harvey Mason Jr. took over as interim president and CEO.[22] In response, Dugan made claims that the organization was complicit in corruption, citing "voting irregularities, financial mismanagement, 'exorbitant and unnecessary' legal bills, and conflicts of interest involving members of the academy's board, executive committee and outside lawyers".[21][23] On March 2, 2020, the Recording Academy announced that it had officially fired her. A letter was sent to its members informing them of the action taken by its board of trustees.[24][25] The organization also tightened their conflict of interest rules that June.[26]

In April 2021, the Recording Academy eliminated its secret voting committees that existed for 28 years.[27] Within two months, it had settled with Dugan for an undisclosed amount.[28]

Awards

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Board memberships and associations

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Dugan is on the board of the Moth,[29] co-chairing it since 2008,[3][30] and the London-and-Nairobi-based creative nonprofit Girl Effect.[31][32] She is also on the board of advisors of CITYarts.[33]

Dugan is a member of Association of American Publishers, MPA – The Association of Magazine Media, and International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.[3]

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References

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  1. ^ "Beyond Type 1 Names Deborah Dugan as New CEO" (Press release).
  2. ^ a b c d e Aswad, Jem (April 16, 2019). "Who Is Deborah Dugan, the New Boss of the Recording Academy?". Variety. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Deborah Dugan". Linked In. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c Lewis, Randy (January 18, 2020). "Sexism? Cronyism? Mismanagement? After sudden ouster of Grammys chief, spin and finger-pointing begin". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 11, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c DeMott, Rick (May 16, 2007). "Dugan New Head of Entertainment Rights North America". Animation News Network.
  6. ^ a b "Contributor: Deborah Dugan". Huffington Post.
  7. ^ Bing, Jonathan (March 5, 2002). "U saddles up 'Seabiscuit'". Variety.
  8. ^ a b c "That Moment When: Deborah Dugan". PBS News Hour via Facebook. May 30, 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Deb Dugan: Chief Executive Officer (RED)". One.org. Archived from the original on April 6, 2013.
  10. ^ "(RED) CEO Deb Dugan: The Business Of Ending Disease | Mad Money | CNBC". CNBC via YouTube. October 11, 2016.
  11. ^ "COVID-19 Threatens to Destroy Progress in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS". Red.org. July 6, 2020.
  12. ^ "Part 1: Welcome and Corporate Overview — Salesforce World Tour New York Keynote 2016". Salesforce via YouTube. May 25, 2016.
  13. ^ Hutchins, Robert (June 8, 2017). "Nickelodeon and Red raise money for AIDS with SpongeBob Red". licensing.biz. Archived from the original on November 23, 2020. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  14. ^ "Deborah Dugan: Contributor ForbesWomen". Forbes.com.
  15. ^ "Nelson Mandela Changemakers". PTTOW.com. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
  16. ^ "Deborah Dugan, CEO, (RED) @ WORLDZ 2017". WorldZ Tribe via YouTube. 2017.
  17. ^ a b Aswad, Jem; Halperin, Shirley (March 18, 2019). "Recording Academy Narrows Search to Replace Neil Portnow".
  18. ^ "BOARD OF TRUSTEES APPOINTS DEBORAH DUGAN AS PRESIDENT/CEO OF". GRAMMY.com. May 8, 2019. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  19. ^ Newman, Melinda (September 20, 2019). "New Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan Pledges More Diversity, Inclusion: 'I'm In Awe of the Potential'". Billboard. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  20. ^ a b Peck, Emily (January 24, 2020). "Deborah Dugan Tried To Fix The Grammys. Instead She Says She Was 'Ruined' By A Boys Club". Huffington Post.
  21. ^ a b Sisario, Ben (January 16, 2020). "Grammys Leader Deborah Dugan Removed 10 Days Before Ceremony". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
  22. ^ Lewis, Randy (January 17, 2020). "Ousted Grammys chief: 'We will expose what happens when you "step up" at the Recording Academy'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  23. ^ Ifeanyi, K. C. (January 23, 2020). "Ousted Recording Academy CEO punches back and claims the Grammys are fixed". Fast Company. Retrieved January 25, 2020.
  24. ^ France, Lisa Respers (March 2, 2020). "Recording Academy fires Deborah Dugan". CNN. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
  25. ^ Aswad, Jem (April 13, 2019). "Deborah Dugan to Succeed Neil Portnow as Recording Academy Chief". Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  26. ^ "Grammy Awards organizers tighten conflict of interest rules, say show to go ahead in January". Reuters.com. June 10, 2020.
  27. ^ Aswad, Jem (April 30, 2021). "Grammy Awards Eliminate 'Secret' Nominating Committees". Variety.
  28. ^ Newman, Melinda (June 25, 2021). "Recording Academy & Ousted CEO Deborah Dugan Reach Settlement". Billboard.
  29. ^ a b c d e "Board & Committees". The Moth.
  30. ^ Dugan, Deborah (February 26, 2018). "Purpose and Career: What Life's Patterns Reveal About What Really Matters". Forbes.com.
  31. ^ "Deborah Dugan". Girl Effect. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
  32. ^ "ontact Us". Girl Effect.
  33. ^ "CITYarts Board of Directors". CITYarts.
Cultural offices
Preceded by President of The Recording Academy
2019–2020 		Succeeded by
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