Sharon Heyward
With a mountain of marketing and promotions
expertise, Music industry veteran and Piscean Sharon Heyward
brings in over 30 years of hands-on experience developing,
breaking and achieving multi-platinum and/or Grammy-winning
hits for some of R&B's biggest names including: Paula
Abdul, After 7, Evelyn Champagne King, Mint Condition, Vicki
Sue Robinson, Soul II Soul and Sounds Of Blackness. Artists
not typically well received within the urban music community,
like Lenny Kravitz and Ziggy Marley, experienced chart-topping
success under Ms. Heyward's direction. Likewise, albums by
legends Diana Ross and the maestro of love, Barry White, received
hit status under Sharon's tutelage.
Sharon Heyward began her career right out
of high school, some 30 years ago at Columbia Records. She
started as a file clerk. According to Sharon, "It was
a choice of that or the telephone company – both were
paying $100 a week!" Simultaneously, the industry's future
power broker began the job that remains most dear to her:
raising her daughter. "Back then, just being a Black
woman in the music industry was tough enough. I was also a
single parent. Succeeding those times as I have, I now know
there's nothing I can't do, once I decide to do it."
Her career turning point came in 1971 when
she was hired as Assistant Sales Manager at Buddah Records:
"Working at Buddah was a teaching ground full of creative,
innovative people who gave me the opportunity to grow."
Grow she did, as Ms. Heyward was promoted to National FM Radio
Promotions Rep, then to Director of Club Promotions.
In 1974, Sharon joined RCA Records where
she furthered her career beyond radio promotions, to product
management and marketing. In 1987, Ms. Heyward was hired at
Virgin Records as Marketing Director. Subsequently, Sharon
was promoted to Senior Vice President and General Manager
at Virgin Records responsible for innovative marketing, advertising
and promotional campaigns. By 1993, she was named President
of Perspective Records, the A&M distributed label owned
by the multi-platinum, Grammy-winning team, Jimmy Jam and
Terry Lewis. By 1996, the marketing maven decided to strike
out on her own forming Sharon Heyward Enterprises (SHE), a
marketing consulting firm. However, Sharon was soon summoned
back to the daily workings of a record company. In 1998, Harmony
Records Vice President and General Manager, Raina Bundy, enlisted
Ms. Heyward's expertise in marketing, thus propelling the
Sony-owned label to the top of the Gospel charts with the
release of best-selling author and spiritual teacher Iyanla
Vanzant's album, In The Meantime – The Music That Tells
The Story.
Sharon endeavors to bring the same principles
that have garnered her previous successes, to her new position
as Senior Vice President of the Trawick Group, an artist management
and entertainment firm. The Trawick Group manages the careers
of Motown/Universal's multi-platinum artist, Brian McKnight
and Tripp and RCA Records' Cherokee. In addition to overseeing
the management duties of the company, Ms. Heyward also supervises
The Group's label deals and further develop its growing consulting
business.
When asked her greatest accomplishment to
date, for Sharon the answer is simple: "My greatest hit
to date is my daughter, a well-known and highly respected
executive in the music industry."
|
