The MLC Announces Chief Financial Officer and Head of International Relations

Indi Chawla, Ilene Weintraub

The Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) has hired Ilene Weintraub as Chief Financial Officer, and Indi Chawla as Head of International Relations.

Chief Executive Officer Kris Ahrend said, “I’m so excited to welcome Ilene and Indi to The MLC team. They are both well-respected executives with years of music industry experience. Ilene has served as a chief financial officer and controller for several different music companies, and Indi has worked extensively with publishers, creators, and collective management organizations throughout Europe and beyond. Adding them to our leadership team now will help ensure we remain on target to begin administering the new blanket license available to eligible U.S. digital streaming services in January 2021.”

Weintraub will be responsible for all of The MLC’s financial activities, including accounting, finance, treasury, cash management, and royalty reporting to members. She will also serve as a strategic advisor to The MLC’s CEO and leadership team on financial and business matters.

Most recently, Weintraub served as CFO responsible for all financial and human resource management functions for a group of independent companies, including the Cornerstone Agency, a full-service creative agency; The Fader, an on-line and print magazine; Fader label, an independent music label; and its music publishing affiliate, Extra Cold. She has held senior financial leadership roles at TouchTunes, EMI Music North America and V2 Records, a start-up independent music label and publishing company. Her career began as an auditor at Ernst & Young.

“I’m thrilled to be joining The MLC at such an exciting time,” Weintraub said. “Kris has assembled a great finance team, including Monique Benjamin and William White. I look forward to working with them to build out the rest of the finance operations at The MLC.”

Indi Chawla, The MLC’s new Head of International Relations, will be responsible for leading outreach and engagement with collective management and other industry organizations outside the United States. Chawla has more than 20 years of experience in the music business, including several years leading teams at independent publishers and nearly a decade leading Warner Chappell’s Global Copyright Team. There, she significantly contributed to the development of industry best practices around the management of music publishing data. Drawing on this experience, she has advised the licensing hub ICE, a joint venture between PRS, GEMA, and STIM in the UK and Europe, on their global copyright products. Her career has given her ample insight into how rights holders, CMOs, and digital platforms and services can work together to create a more sustainable environment for songwriters.