Panos Panay to Head Berklee ICE

On January 29, the college launched the Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (ICE). Berklee alumnus and Sonicbids founder Panos Panay ’94 has been named as its founding managing director. The institute will offer an academic curriculum, research projects, online courses, and an incubation environment to encourage new startups within the music arena. Berklee ICE will inspire innovation through outreach to other Boston-area universities, such as MIT, Harvard, and Babson to offer Berklee students the unique chance to conduct joint research projects under the umbrella of the new institute. 

The institute will foster entrepreneurialism within the Berklee community and prepare graduates to work with converging trends in creativity, technology, and business. Through a blend of academic backgrounds, Berklee ICE will leverage Boston’s research ecosystem to unearth new opportunities within the music industry related to audience engagement with social media and identifying emerging artist trends or new channels of music discovery. Additionally, it will prepare students to self-manage and promote their careers as performers, writers, or producers. 

Berklee ICE will draw on the support and experience of successful Berklee trustees, entrepreneurs, and academics including Bill Kaiser (an entrepreneur with Greylock Partners), Peter Gotcher (the chair of Dolby, and cofounder of Topspin Media and DigiDesign), Mike Dreese (the CEO of Newbury Comics), and Ken Zolot (a senior lecturer at MIT School of Engineering).

“We’re thrilled that Panos will lead this new initiative at Berklee that will give rise to new ideas, thinking, and startups in the music industry,” said Berklee President Roger H. Brown who is also a successful entrepreneur. 

“Contemporary artists by necessity function as entrepreneurs, and the music industry is ripe for new ventures that support both the creativity and compensation of musicians.”