Panos Panay

Connection Science Fellow

Panos is the Senior Vice President for Global Strategy and Innovation at Berklee College of Music. He is also the founder of Berklee's Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship and the co-founder of Open Music Initiative, which in collaboration with MIT Media Lab's Connection Science brings together over 250 leading music, media and technology industry organizations to create an open global protocol for identification of musical rights owners and creators.

Prior to Berklee, Panos was founder and CEO of Sonicbids, the leading platform for emerging artists to connect with music promoters; resulting in over 1 million gigs booked in over 80 countries around the world. He led the company for 13 years until after its successful acquisition in a deal backed by Guggenheim Partners.

At Berklee, he leads the development and execution of the college's long-term strategic plan, oversees its global network and campuses and steers the incorporation of new technologies, corporate partnerships and new program development. He is currently leading Berklee's expansion to China and has spearheaded multi-disciplinary collaborations between Berklee and MIT; design firm IDEO; the business school ESADE; and Brown University.

Awards include: Fast Company "Fast 50"; Inc Magazine "Inc 500”; Mass Hi-Tech All Stars; and Boston Globe's Game Changers. Sonicbids and Panos were also profiled in the book "Outsmart" by best-selling author Jim Champy and he has been invited to speak at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in January 2019 as part of his work with Open Music.

Panos has been a guest on programs such as CNBC's Squawk Box and a guest writer about entrepreneurship for Forbes, WSJ, BusinessWeek, Fast Company and Inc Magazine, among others. He is a public speaker at many universities and events around the world.

Panos' first book, co-authored with Michael Hendrix of IDEO is scheduled to be published by Hachette’s PublicAffairs in 2020.