Roy Elkins, President
Roy Elkins is a well-known music technology entrepreneur who has been leading industry innovations for over twenty years. Elkins is the Founder and CEO of Broadjam Inc., serving independent musicians and industry giants such as the Academy of Country Music, Warner/Chappell, Peavey and others. Broadjam.com, the company’s popular independent website now hosts over 100,000 artists with over 450,000 songs uploaded to its massive online searchable database. The site is known for its musician-friendly services, including music licensing opportunities to film, tv, radio and advertisers, website hosting, artist profiles, reviews, contests, transmit mechanism, charts, download sales and more. Before founding Broadjam, Elkins was the Vice President-Sales & Marketing for Sonic Foundry and held several Director-level positions with Ensoniq Corporation. He maintains a database of over 5,000 music industry contacts including executives at virtually every company in the music industry and past and/or present clients such as Les Paul, D.J. Jazzy Jeff, the Beach Boys, the Allman Brothers, BoyzIIMen, Joe Walsh, ELP, Yes, Journey, Skid Row, Randy Jackson, Will Smith and many others. He is a musician and songwriter who thoroughly understands the musician’s world.

Ralph Cohen, Vice-President
(bio and photo coming soon)

Matt Jacoby, Secretary
Matt has been playing drums for the last 16 years, recently wrapping up his latest venture as the drummer for local R&B artist Felicia Alima. He was also the original drummer for Stevens Point-based rock group Planet of 9. Matt is very involved with the business side of the Madison music scene, having co-founded the Local Sounds organization with Rick Tvedt in the hopes of bringing change and more structure to the local music community. Matt has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Information Systems and works as a web user interface designer by day. He currently serves on the MAMA Board of Directors as the secretary and web administrator.

Rick Tvedt, Treasurer
Rick Tvedt has been a performing musician since the age of eight, playing guitar, bass and singing in various rock bands. In the 1980’s he had regional success with the pop/new wave band The And. In 1991 he cut his first solo album, Demos from the Heart. After that he joined forces with some old chums and formed the Sled Dogs, a five-piece progressive rock band that has one album to its credit, Salute.

At the age of forty-four, Rick began to look at how he could contribute more to the Madison music community. After a year of research and hard decisions he launched the monthly local music newspaper Rick’s Café in January of 2003, growing the newspaper to over 10,000 copies and a freelance staff of nearly thirty contributors. Rick’s Café could now be found from Wausau to Janesville and from Platteville to Oconomowoc before its demise in January of 2007.

In 2003 Rick also conceptualized a local music awards show to stimulate the music economy and to inform the public by recognizing the efforts of local artists. The new organization was termed the Madison Area Music Awards, affectionately known as the MAMAs. The MAMAs were set up as a charitable organization to raise money to fund music programs for kids. With the looming budget problems in the schools the organization has focused its efforts on providing instruments and other essentials for the Madison Metropolitan School District. The MAMAs also work with community centers, other organizations and needy individuals.

Rick served as the board president for two years and is now the de-facto executive director and Treasurer for the MAMAs. He is also the executive producer of the awards show itself, which is held every May. In June of 2009, Rick’s Café was resurrected online as Local Sounds Magazine, part of the Local Sounds network.

Valerie Wulf
Valerie H. Wulf is a Principal of Hilltop Entertainment. She is an attorney and has invested and mentored private venture businesses for 21 years. Valerie previously practiced as an attorney with national law firms in San Diego and Chicago. She is also the President and Co-Manager of Midwest Venture Capital Managers, LLC, a General Partner of the Phenomenelle Angels Fund I, LP, and an independent Director of an international women’s business organization. In addition to being a Board Member of the Madison Area Music Association, she is also on the Board of Directors of the Greater Bucky Open, a charitable foundation benefitting the University of Wisconsin Children’s Hospital. Valerie earned her BBA with Honors in Business and Real Estate from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She received her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Grant Billings
Grant opened Steinway Piano Gallery of Madison in 2007, continuing his family’s 50+ year history in the music/piano business. He began his entertainer career in high school; first as a keyboard player, then as a mobile disc jockey and today DJ’s and MC’s primarly for not-for-profit fundraisers. Most recently, he decided to take on a new challenge – learning to play the drums.

Grant studied business in college, worked at his family’s piano stores, and was a District Sales Manager for one of the world’s largest piano manufacturers. A strong advocate of music education, he founded the Steinway Society’s Annual Young Artist Piano Competition in 2000 and continues to speak before teachers, parents and legislators around the country.

In 2004, Grant became the first person to earn two Masters degrees from William Steinway University, the industry’s most demanding business and product education program. He also served as Chapter President for the Interior Design Society.

He currently serves as Executive Director of the Steinway Piano Society of Madison and on the Board of Directors of Rhapsody Arts Center and the Madison Area Music Association (MAMA). In his spare time, Grant enjoys spending time with his family, reading, losing golf balls and, of course, making music.

Ankur Malhotra
Ankur is an experienced management and technology consultant and serial entrepreneur with over twelve years of experience in diverse areas of business operations, marketing, strategy and finance. He currently leads the business consulting practice at 5Nines Data, a Madison-based technology services provider to small and mid-sized businesses. Previously he was the co-founder and COO at The NeuronFarm, an educational software start-up. An ardent music lover, Ankur co-founded Madison Music Review in 2007, with the aim to facilitate, encourage and grow the music scene in Madison through commentary, pictures, and show reviews. His latest endeavor is India-based Amarrass Records, established in 2010 to produce and promote heritage music from around the globe. In addition to being a Board Member of the Madison Area Music Association, he also serves on various committees of the Board of Directors at the Willy Street Grocery Co-op. Ankur received a B.E. with Distinction in Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore University, India and his M.B.A. in Entrepreneurship and Human Resources from the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He enjoys photography, reading, the outdoors, and spinning vinyl.

Beth Kille
Beth Kille has been on the Madison music scene for nearly 10 years. Prior to launching her solo career in 2008, she fronted 7-time Madison Area Music Award winning band Clear Blue Betty. Kille coordinates many activities to help area performing songwriters, including co-coordinating the Madison Chapter of the Nashville Songwriters Association International, hosting Madison’s Chick Singer Night and volunteering at Madison West High School to coordinate a Songwriting Club.

Jason “Clownboy” Freel
Jason “Clownboy” Freel, a graduate of Madison Area Technical College, has been an active supporter of the local music scene since 2004 when he started the WI BANDS TOUR, a tour designed to see local bands on a regular basis and to do a review on them. To date over 100 bands have been reviewed by Clownboy. Clownboy has also organized bus tours designed to expose people to different bands and venues in the area. Playing drums since 1983, Clownboy has played with some of the areas top musicians such as John Masino and Beth Kille, as well as playing with his current band PART-TIME CARNIES. Clownboy is currently working on starting his own TV show about the local music scene.

Jesse Russell
Jesse was born and raised in Connecticut, began blogging in 1997, and moved to Madison in 2003. In addition to being one of the co-founders of dane101.com, Jesse likes to dabble in shaping the reality of Madison. He has launched various successful events in the city including What’s Your Damage?!, the MadPubQuiz of Awesomeness, the Fire Ball Masquerade, Dane101′s Halloween Party, and more.