Ousted Grammys CEO Deborah Dugan and the Recording Academy have reached a confidential settlement over why the former leader was let go from the organization.
"The Recording Academy and Deborah Dugan have agreed to resolve their differences and to keep the terms of their agreement private," the academy and Dugan said in a joint statement late Thursday.
Dugan was fired days before the 2020 Grammys. She has since said the awards show was rigged and muddled with conflicts of interest. The former CEO of Bono's (RED) charity organization was the first woman to hold the title of president and CEO at the academy.
The settlement comes weeks after the academy said its interim leader, Harvey Mason Jr., would be its official CEO. This week the academy named Valeisha Butterfield Jones and Panos A. Panay as co-presidents of the organization.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More