Cultural industries veteran and industry development strategist, Keely Kemp is CultureCap’s founder and president. Keely and her team have proven their commitment to “building a vibrant and profitable cultural sector” by helping cultural enterprises grow their opportunities since 2013.

 

Keely continues to steer her agency towards emerging industry needs, enriching the agency’s team, and evolving its service offerings. Talented experts in business, finance, marketing, and human resources, join professionals in research, cultural policy and the creative industries to expand the company’s service offerings, including funding, strategic planning and facilitation; business planning; organizational management and governance; research planning; data analysis and benchmarking; project management; cultural policy and planning, marketing and human resources.

 

Keely is co-founder of Across the Board, an advocacy movement committed to ensuring gender parity on the boards of directors of organizations that impact the Canadian music industry.

Aurora’s uniquely comprehensive music industry experience grounds her deep understanding of funding structures. In her 10+ years in music, she has worked in grant administration, event and tour management, performance, and music education. During her three years at FACTOR, Aurora became a policy whiz who developed processing tools, managed projects across all programs, and helped her clients access the maximum available support. Aurora earned her M.A. in Popular Music Studies from the University of Liverpool in 2008. Her keen eye for detail—combined with a firm grasp of funding mandates—means that Aurora delivers pragmatic advice and top-notch funding strategies to music businesses and artists.

Melissa’s career started in artist management, so she knows the biz from the ground up. Her eclectic roster included By Divine Right, Brian Borcherdt, Rebecca Higgs and Holy F*ck. Now president of MG Events, Melissa specializes in fundraising, sponsorship, volunteer engagement, marketing strategies and campaign development and delivery. In other words, she finds, gets, and invests some major capital from Canada’s largest corporations. In the past 10 years, she’s led teams that raised $2.5 million in donations for charities and non-profits, secured $1 million in sponsorship opportunities for corporate clients, and created/managed more than 120 signature events.

Sarah Norris says she loves to laugh. And it’s true! She loves challenges, and laughs while she overcomes them. She did that for several years in executive roles with three majors, EMI, BMG, and Universal Music. Universal’s shareholders were laughing too, because as senior VP, Sarah helped boost the company’s market share from 14% to almost 40%. Sarah was also responsible for multi-million dollar marketing, promotion, and advertising budgets at Universal, while shepherding sales that topped the $170 M mark. A happy entrepreneur at heart, Sarah is now working with music industry clients as a consultant, and adding her expertise and exuberance to the CultureCap team.

Nancy has worked with many businesses in a variety of sectors including; Arts & Entertainment, Media, Non-profits, Manufacturing and most recently Software Development. She offers a unique combination of traditional and cutting-edge business development tools and techniques. She is passionate about the trends that are fundamentally changing the way business gets done; Visual thinking, Design thinking and Gamification. Nancy is committed to helping businesses drive innovation and collaboration, and facilitate strategic decision-making to ensure successful business ventures. She believes that if you add play you can power up productivity, performance and profits. “Get it Done – Have More Fun”

With a background that combines illustration, video production, creative and technical writing, web development, and videogame design, Evan is a designer and producer with the creative, strategic, and analytical insight to grasp the entirety of any creative project. Evan has worked in interactive production for nearly a decade, seeing projects from every possible angle, before moving to a specialization in producing and grant writing. An expert in Canadian interactive funding, Evan has helped clients to access millions for projects including websites, mobile apps, and videogames. Bridging left and right brain thinking, Evan distills meaning and impact with artistic flair, while staying rooted in marketing and budgetary realities. Evan loves drawing, cycling, and oxford commas.

Ian's primary focus is helping places nurture their cultural scenes and arts and entertainment clusters. Ian has a deep knowledge of the literature and best practices of economic geography, from the foundational works of Jane Jacobs to the state-of-the-art. Quantitatively, he has extensive experience gathering, analyzing and manipulating datasets – including messy and unusual ones – and applying statistical methods to produce actionable insights. He puts great importance on getting to know places on a human scale, and believes combining lived experiences with data-driven insights is the best way to understand the unique character and potential of a place.

Elisabeth Springate has a unique skill set: she’s an experienced art director and graphic designer who also has an M.A. in Communications. Elisabeth has broad experience providing visual design that delivers, for corporate, educational, and non-profit clients. She works closely with writers, photographers, web developers and other design professionals to produce targeted strategic messaging for a wide range of clients. Her trained analytical skills let her transform complex messages into clear visual presentations, for any audience. Elisabeth shares her artist’s eye as an educator, having taught creative and studio arts at Ontario-accredited institutions, including York University and OCADU.

Tyler Tasson brings over a decade of marketing experience to enrich CultureCap’s service offerings. Tyler’s marketing background encompasses artist management, national & international marketing, events & endorsements, grants preparation, project management, and label services management. Tyler has held positions at Anthem Entertainment/SRO Management and ole Media Management, servicing such artists as Big Wreck, RUSH, Haley Reinhart, George Canyon, and more.

 

CultureCap is pleased to offer our clients marketing services through Tyler’s marketing company, Endemic Marketing. In both digital and traditional spaces Endemic handles project launch strategies, brand development, project management, marketing plans, social media management, and more.

HR support is hard to come by yet proper HR management is critical for the health of the organization. We recognize that gap and are pleased to welcome Sari Friedman, a Human Resources Consultant and Coach who specializes in high-quality, sophisticated HR guidance. Sari’s extensive experience comes from numerous formal roles, including Recruitment & Development Manager and Vice President of People & Values. Sari has a Masters of Adult Education in Workplace Learning & Change from The University of Toronto, an Honours Degree in Psychology, and a Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation. With Sari, CultureCap offers professional HR services, including: Performance Management; Key Talent Management; Recruitment Support; Employee Relations; Outplacement; Internal HR Support; HR Programs and Policies; Training and Development; Employee Satisfaction Surveys; HR Audits; and Exit Interviews.