MEIEA Summit 2025

David IsraeliteDavid M. Israelite is President and CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), a position he has held since February 2005.
Israelite is responsible for overseeing all aspects of NMPA’s operations, from legal strategy and implementation to government affairs and advocacy. His leadership has produced revolutionary successes on behalf of publishers including the largest CRB rate increase in history, groundbreaking industry collaboration in royalty rate agreements, landmark settlements and model licenses with streaming platforms, and ultimately raising the profile of the publishing community. Additionally, Israelite was instrumental in guiding the effort to modernize copyright laws culminating in the Music Modernization Act (MMA) and the subsequent creation of the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC).
He has been named to Billboard’s Power 100 multiple times and serves on the boards of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Special Olympics DC. He also serves as the President of the NMPA S.O.N.G.S. Foundation (Supporting Our Next Generation of Songwriters) which supports songwriters through funding scholarships and direct services, among other assistance. He previously served on the board of the Country Music Association (CMAs).
Prior to leading NMPA, Israelite held senior positions in various capacities for the U.S. government including at the Department of Justice where he served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General of the United States and was appointed Chairman of the Department’s Task Force on Intellectual Property. He also worked in the U.S. Senate where he was Administrative Assistant (Chief of Staff) for Missouri Senator Kit Bond. Previously, Israelite also practiced law in the Commercial Litigation Department at the firm of Bryan Cave, LLP in Kansas City, Missouri.
Israelite earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri and his undergraduate degree from William Jewell College.

David Levin is BMI’s Senior Vice President, Licensing. He is responsible for all of BMI’s domestic licensing and revenue generation, encompassing radio, television, digital media, cable, satellite and general licensing. Levin, who oversees teams in New York and Nashville, reports directly to Mike Steinberg, BMI’s EVP, Chief Revenue & Creative Officer, and is based in New York.
Under Levin’s direction as Vice President, Digital Licensing, BMI’s digital revenues grew from $50 million in 2012 to more than $250 million in 2018. He helped secure the company’s first licensing deals with Netflix, Amazon’s Music and Video Services, Apple Music, Hulu and Facebook, and also established new licensing structures with Spotify, YouTube and Pandora.
Prior to BMI, Levin spent 12 years at Sony Music Entertainment where he held various positions throughout his tenure including Senior Vice President, Digital Sales, and Vice President, New Media. While at Sony, Levin established the digital and mobile business channels which started as a small, nontraditional segment, but soon became much of the company’s core business. Before joining Sony, he ran the marketing department for Getmusic.com, a joint venture between BMG and Universal.
In addition to being a sought-after speaker at conferences such as SXSW, Music Biz, RAIN and MONDO, Levin made Billboard’s Digital Power Players list in 2015 and 2017, 2018 and 2019. He holds an MBA from Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Management and a BA in Sociology, also from Rutgers University.

Kris Ahrend is the Chief Executive Officer of The MLC, where he leads the organization in its mission to ensure songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers receive their mechanical royalties from streaming and download services in the U.S. accurately and on time. Under his direction, The MLC has achieved total royalties distributed of more than $2.7 billion and grown membership to over 50,000 Members to date.
Before joining The MLC, Kris served as the President of U.S. Shared Services for Warner Music Group (WMG), where he led the development and launch of WMG’s Center of Excellence for Shared Services in Nashville and oversaw the operations of fifteen different functional teams providing a variety of administrative, financial, and legal services to WMG’s U.S.-based publishing teams, record labels, and corporate divisions. Prior to launching the Center of Excellence, Ahrend served as the Head of Business & Legal Affairs for WMG’s catalog label, Rhino Records, in Los Angeles, and then led a large legal, financial, and administrative shared services organization within WMG that he helped to create.

Kris started working in the music industry in New York City, where he held positions in the Law Department at Sony Music and then the Business and Legal Affairs Department at Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
A graduate of Binghamton University in New York and the Washington & Lee School of Law, Kris began his legal career as a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He then spent several years in private practice, working in the New York office of the international law firm, Simpson Thacher.

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC) is a nonprofit organization designated by the U.S. Copyright Office pursuant to the historic Music Modernization Act of 2018.
In January 2021, The MLC began administering blanket mechanical licenses to eligible streaming and download services (digital service providers or DSPs) in the United States. The MLC collects the royalties due under those licenses from the DSPs and pays songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers. 
The MLC has built a publicly accessible musical works database, as well as a portal that creators and music publishers can use to submit and maintain their musical works data. These tools help ensure that creators and music publishers are paid properly. work to level up any artists’ journey
together.
Before building 24/7 Artists, she co-founded House Studios – an influential recording space in
the DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) music scenes that contributed to the success of artists
like Logic, Ari Lennox, Wale, VicBlends, and Mannywellz.

Mitch Glazier is Chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In his nearly 20 years at RIAA, Glazier has played a vital role in the music industry’s transition to streaming and “anywhere, anytime” access to music. Before joining RIAA, Glazier served as Chief Counsel for Intellectual Property to the Judiciary Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives under Chairman Henry Hyde. In his career in and out of government, Glazier has worked on every major copyright bill considered in the past three decades from the Digital Performance Right in Sound Recordings Act of 1995 to the Music Modernization Act of 2018, laying the foundation for the modern streaming economy that has strengthened and remade the music business for the 21st Century. A native of Illinois, Glazier served as law clerk to the Honorable Wayne R. Andersen, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, and practiced law at the Chicago firm Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg as an associate in commercial litigation. He graduated from Northwestern University and Vanderbilt Law School. Named to Billboard’s Power 100 list of top music executives, Glazier serves as Chairman of the Board of RIAA, Chairman of the Board of Musicians on Call, the charity that brings the healing power of music to the bedsides of patients in hospitals and health care facilities around the country, and serves on the Boards of IFPI, SoundExchange, Leadership Music and the Lutheran Church of St. Andrew in Silver Spring, Maryland. As a teenager in the 80s, Glazier’s room posters included Simple Minds and INXS. A fan of Chicago Blues, he was privileged to see Koko Taylor live several times before she passed. He and his wife, Carly, have two sons, ages 21 and 18 – one of them a songwriter, producer and musician himself – who constantly keep their parents in check with new music discoveries. Glazier’s goal: to foster respect for the power of music.

Stephen Parker is the Executive Director of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA). Parker works with NIVA’s board and staff to grow the association’s membership, expand national partnerships that advance the live entertainment sector, and empower members with resources to strengthen the future of live entertainment. Parker also promotes diversity and equity across independent venues and ensures that music and comedy venues, festivals, and promoters have a voice at the federal, state, and local levels.

Before NIVA, Parker served as Director of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the National Governors Association, as an Advisor at the Country Music Association, as Senior Policy Advisor at the National Guard, as Senior Special Assistant in the Office of Governor Tim Kaine, and as Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs at a national venture capital firm. Parker is a member of the Country Music Association (CMA) Board of Directors and Chairman of the CMA Foundation Board of Directors.
 
Parker holds a Master’s Degree from Harvard University, a Bachelor’s Degree from Longwood University, an Associate’s Degree from Southside Virginia Community College, and is a graduate of the Sorensen Institute Political Leadership Program at the University of Virginia