Board of Directors

Catherine Haridy – Chairperson

Managing the creative talents of Eskimo Joe, Bob Evans, Jebediah, Basement Birds, The Chemist along with producers and a wonderful author Craig Shuftan, Ms. Haridy runs Catherine Haridy Management, a label Dirt Diamond Productions, a  friendly empire.   Starting off broadcasting on 3RRR and as contributor with InPress Magazine in Melbourne, followed by a jump to Festival Mushroom Records then Warner Music as an A&R Manager, these experiences facilitated her long standing management relationships and successful releases of several gold and platinum selling artists.

Kim Thomas – Vice-Chairperson

Kim Thomas has been managing The Whitlams for the last 12 years. During that time the band have played over 1500 shows and have had 3 multi-platinum & 2 gold albums. The album ‘Eternal Nightcap’ was also the biggest selling independent album in Australian history.

Kim Thomas is the director of Black Yak Management and has also been co-managing Magic Dirt successfully for the past 4 years. Kim also manages very promising young band Lowrider.
In the late 1980’s Kim also managed the careers of Crash Politics and Porcelain Bus and more recently Preshrunk, Nitocris & iOTA.

On an international level Kim’s artists have been released in or toured Ireland, England, France, Germany, Poland, Canada, America & Japan.

Briese Abbott - Vice-Chairperson

A Manager at One Louder Entertainment, Briese Abbott has her background in promoting live music events and in community radio, as a producer and presenter at Sydney’s FBi Radio Station.

She holds a Bachelor of Management from the University of Technology Sydney and was voted one of the “top 30 under 30” music industry professionals in Australia (by The Music Network). She joined One Louder to work with Paul Kelly, Sarah Blasko, End Of Fashion, The Drones, Kate Miller-Heidke, Clare Bowditch and her most recent signing PVT (Pivot).

Denny Burgess – Treasurer

Denny Burgess is a singer/bass player from Australian bands that include The Throb, Masters Apprentices, The Whispers, His Majesty, and BurgessBurgess. He spent 11 years living in London, in a variety of UK based bands such as Ginger, the George Hatcher Band and Bombshell.

He now heads Denny Burgess Management, looking after former Idols Rebecca LaVauney and Peter Ryan, as well as BurgessBurgess.

Denny is currently Chairman of the ‘Australian Songwriters Association’ (ASA), and Chairman of the ‘Australian Songwriters Official National Group’ (ASONG). He is also an active member of both the ‘Association of Independent Record Labels’ (AIR), and music industry benevolent group ‘Support Act Limited’ (SAL).

Under the auspices of Burgess Ventures he owns and runs Event Management company A Red Letter Day and Regal Records, an independent label that explored the South-East Asian market in the 90’s, and now releases young original bands.

He also has sporting and corporate interests as a Director of Wests Tigers Rugby League Football Club, Wests Ashfield Leagues, and Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club. Denny also recently joined the Board of Ronald McDonald House Charities.
Bill Cullen

Bill is a director of One Louder Entertainment, the management home to End Of Fashion, Paul Kelly, Sarah Blasko, The Drones and Kate Miller- Heidke.

He has been involved in the music business since leaving school, and did a long stretch working with Grant Thomas Management, working with acts such as Crowded House and The Rockmelons.  A five year stint in London followed, where he worked with the legendary Pete Jenner (manager of Pink Floyd, The Clash, Billy Bragg etc), before going on to co-manage New Zealand act OMC (How Bizarre) who went on to a number one single and gold album in the US.

He returned to   Australia in 1999, and established One Louder, and has since had platinum plus success with Alex Lloyd, George and Amiel.  He is also a Director of the PPCA.

Gregg Donovan

For 18 years Gregg Donovan has played an incredibly active role in the Australian Music industry taking on number of roles in the live arena from driver to promoter rep, tour manager to video producer for a who’s who of local and international artists including; Fugazi, Ben Lee, Pavement, Deftones, Eddie Vedder, Shawn Mullins, The Living End, At The Drive In, Happy Mondays Mix Master Mike and DJ Spooky.  His reputation earned him the award for Best Tour Manager in 1999 and 2000 at the Australian Live Music Awards.

Gregg is presently Co- Owner/Director of Wonderlick Entertainment (Label, Publishing, Merch & Management) and managers the careers of Grinspoon, Josh Pyke, Airbourne and Jackson McLaren.

Heath Bradby

Heath Bradby is a band manager with 17 years experience in the industry.

Heath spent 13 years guiding the careers of Jebediah and Bob Evans, combining tour management as well in the earlier days. Going from being a glorified booking agent to a manager co-ordinating tours and releases in several continents, as well as many gold, platinum and double platinum albums in Australia, it was a long ride, and a great exercise in learning by your mistakes.

Heath’s time these days is spent as MD of management company The Fidelity
Corporation, who represent the cream of Australia’s cutting edge music including such disparate acts as Karnivool, Snowman, Downsyde, Drapht, and Papa vs Pretty. All these bands have a focus on international careers, and only now after 17 years of graft in Australia does Heath feel vaguely prepared for the job ahead.

Heath thinks people spend way to much time thinking about the music industry and not enough time thinking about music.

Tom Harris

Tom entered the Australian Music Industry in 2003 as the bookkeeper at Rubber Records, promoting his services under the name White Sky.   White Sky soon grew to become the largest music business management company in Australia; working with over 100 bands, record labels, festivals and other industry services.

In 2006 Tom and manager Danny Rogers discussed combining their skill sets with the aim of creating an elite artist management team.  They started working with The Temper Trap and managed the band from humble beginnings in small Melbourne venues to extensive international touring and half a million sales of their debut record; reaching Platinum status in Australia and Gold status in the UK.

In 2009 Tom began managing The Little Stevies, structuring for them a sustainable business which has enabled them to tour North America twice, record internationally and set up independent releases in three countries.

Buzz Bidstrup

Graham “Buzz” Bidstrup has been actively involved in the Australian entertainment industry for over 35 years as a musician, songwriter, music producer and artist manager.

From 1976 to ‘81, he played drums with The Angels aka Angel City (USA, UK Europe) and he co-wrote/co-produced songs which saw chart success not only in Australia but also overseas including the most successful Angels hit single “No Secrets”. Buzz was also a founding member of two other legendary Australian bands, The Party Boys in 1982 and GANGgajang in 1984. He has produced over 45 albums for a wide variety of artists and his work as a session musician has has been heard on many hit records, including Australian Crawl’s “Reckless”, Jimmy Barnes’ “No Second Prize” and Richard Clapton’s “Solidarity”.

Buzz began his management career in 1984 with GANGgajang but has also managed other artists including Nathan Cavaleri and Diana Anaid after producing their debut albums. He has managed legendary Indigenous entertainer Dr Jimmy Little AO since the release of his “Messenger “album in 1999 and is the CEO of the Jimmy Little Foundation, working for a healthier future for Indigenous Australians.

Never one to sit around idly, Buzz is looking forward to being an active part of the AAM in the coming years.