Academy Of Country Music Announces New Hires Across Three Departments

The Academy of Country Music has announced new hires within three departments. Rory Levine joins as Vice President, Digital Strategy & Engagement; Haley Montgomery has been named Manager, Awards & Membership; and David Sassano is now Executive Assistant to Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside.

Levine joins the Academy of Country Music most recently from The Atlantic where he led consumer recruitment and registration efforts, supporting a slate of 150+ premiere live journalism events staged across the U.S. Prior to that, he served as Vice President, Marketing and Audience Engagement at CMT, heading consumer-facing advertising campaigns, promotional partnerships, and social media activation. Over the last year, he has worked as a marketing and brand strategy consultant for a variety of businesses, including the Grand Ole Opry, Blake Shelton’s Ole Red restaurants, public-private partnership state organization Launch Tennessee, and user-generated content showcase tool TINT.

In his role at the Academy, Levine is responsible for building and executing strategies for the organization’s digital portfolio, aiming to build and develop authentic communities across platforms. Levine reports to Whiteside, and can be reached at rory@acmcountry.com.

Originally from Huntsville, Alabama, Montgomery joins the Academy of Country Music as Manager, Awards & Membership. Previous stops for Montgomery include Opry Entertainment Group (OEG) as Manager for the Artist & Label Relations team, where she served as a liaison between artists’ teams and the various properties across the OEG portfolio. Montgomery spent three years working on the strategic partnership team at the Country Music Association. There, she managed the assets owed to CMA’s 50+ brand partners across the team for all of their tent pole events. Her previous personal accounts have included Vera Bradley, Playstation, Crocs, KIND bars, Philosophy, Rent the Runway, Monster, Cracker Barrel and more.

In her role as Manager, Montgomery is responsible for supporting all initiatives and development of the Academy’s membership, as well as spearheading the Awards & Voting processes. Montgomery reports to Tommy Moore, Vice President, Artist & Industry Relations and Board & Governance and can be reached at haley.montgomery@acmcountry.com.

Sassano joins the Academy of Country Music as Executive Assistant to Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside. Previously, Sassano spent 14 years at Warner Music Group as Director of Operations & Administration. Sassano has been responsible for many duties ranging from supporting C-level executives, organizing board meetings and managing major office moves both in New York and Nashville.

In his current role as Executive Assistant, he will provide administrative support to the CEO, Board of Directors and Executive Team. He reports directly to Whiteside and can be reached at david.sassano@acmcountry.com.

“The Academy is thrilled to welcome Rory, Haley and David to the team,” says Whiteside. “Each of these professionals brings with them valuable expertise and knowledge of the country music industry that we know will provide a fresh perspective to the ACM team, helping to propel us forward in our future endeavors!”