MusicRow is proud to reveal the honorees for its ninth annual Rising Women on the Row celebration.

This year’s ceremony will honor six female executives who are making a significant impact on Nashville’s country music industry.

City National Bank, Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group, and Loeb & Loeb return this year as Presenting Sponsors for the 2020 Rising Women on the Row. Additional details about the event will be announced soon.

This year’s honorees include:

Jen Conger (FBMM, Business Manager)

Jen Conger quickly moved up the ranks to become a business manager at FBMM, after becoming the first female associate business manager in the firm’s history and doing so at a record pace of under 10 years. In Jen’s almost two decades of experience within the music industry, she has mentored a broad list of accomplished artists who have collectively received 17 Grammy Award wins, along with many ACM, CMA, Billboard and Golden Globe awards. She is a member of the ACM, the CMA, SOURCE, The Recording Academy and The Country Music Hall of Fame Troubadour Society, as well as an alumna of the Society of Leaders in Development (SOLID) and a member of the Leadership Music Class of 2020. Jen played an integral role in the development and execution of seven sold-out concerts held at Bridgestone Arena, in which the proceeds—over $4 million to date—benefited the Country Music Hall of Fame. For the last nine years, she has organized a clothing and instrument donation on behalf of her clients, with donated items totaling over $110,000 given to the W.O. Smith Music School, and in 2018, was involved in the preparation of a sold-out benefit concert in October of that year, which raised over $700,000 net for various music industry-oriented charities, including MusiCares.

 

JoJamie Hahr (BBR Music Group/BMG, VP Marketing)

JoJamie Hahr has been with BBR Music Group for six years, previously serving as the VP of Promotion at BBR management group before assuming the role of VP of Marketing. Prior to joining the BBR team, JoJamie served as the National Dir. of Field Promotion for The Valory Music Co., after being promoted from Dir. of SE Promotion and Marketing. Her 20 years in the industry includes stops at UMG, WSIX and WWKA. Since taking the helm of the then newly created marketing department at BBR Music Group, she has grown the department into an industry leader. JoJamie oversees brand partnerships and strategic marketing, as well as coordinates marketing efforts for each of the BBR Music Group’s three imprints, including the 2016, 2017 and 2018 ACM Entertainer of the Year, and ACM Artists of the Decade, Jason Aldean, chart-toppers Dustin Lynch, Zac Brown Band and Chase Rice, as well as Randy Houser,  Jimmie Allen, Lindsay Ell, LOCASH, Runaway June, and more. JoJamie lead marketing efforts for Blanco Brown’s debut hit “The Git Up”, which claimed the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart (12 weeks), was the top-selling digital country song in the U.S. (13 weeks) and earned nearly half a BILLION streams worldwide to date.

 

Mandy Gallagher Morrison (City National Bank, Vice President/Senior Relationship Manager)

With 16 years of music industry banking experience, Mandy’s specialty is helping her clients meet their financial goals. She was recruited by City National Bank in 2011 to help launch its Nashville office, making her the youngest relationship manager in the bank’s entire Entertainment division at the time. She was promoted to vice president in just two years, and has played an integral role in the bank’s growth story as it’s become Nashville’s premiere entertainment bank, now serving over 80% of the country music industry. Just a year after joining City National, Mandy helped to start the Troubadour Society, an organization for young professionals that supports the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. As one of the founding leaders, she spearheaded the collaboration with the Hall of Fame to launch the organization, and is still a member today. She is currently an active board member of the T.J. Martell Foundation and a member of the nonprofit SOURCE, of which she sat on the board for eight years including as board president in 2018 and past president and program committee chair in 2019. She is also heavily involved in Leadership Music after graduating from the program in 2015. For the past two years, Mandy has hit over 200% of her client goals, and has significantly grown both the number of clients City National serves in Nashville and the assets managed on clients’ behalf.

 

Missy Roberts (Universal Music Publishing Group, Senior Creative Director)

As Sr. Creative Director for Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville, Missy Roberts represents a catalog of writers that includes Ingrid Andress, Paul DiGiovanni, Justin Ebach, Derrick Southerland and more, and has cuts “The Truth” (Jason Aldean), “Young And Crazy” (Frankie Ballard), “Sippin’ On Fire” (Florida Georgia Line), “I Met A Girl” (William Michael Morgan), and more. After an internship in marketing at Sony Records, Missy was hired by the A&R department as assistant to industry vet Tracy Gershon. Missy launched her publishing career at Island Bound Music, running the office, exploiting the expansive catalog and handling day to day management of Sony artist Crystal Shawanda and Dreamworks Records artist Gary Nichols. From there she moved to Disney Music Publishing where she helped start the Nashville office. Since then, Roberts has held posts at Stage Three Music and EMI Music Publishing, before joining UMPG Nashville. Most recently, Missy connected Warner Music Nashville/Atlantic artist Ingrid Andress with co-writers Derrick Southerland and Sam Ellis, which led to Andress’ current Top 15 hit “More Hearts Than Mine.” Missy is also involved in female empowerment group She Is The Music.

 

Jennie Smythe (Girlilla Marketing, CEO)

Jennie Smythe began her career in the mid-1990s working for Elektra Entertainment, Spivak-Sobol Entertainment, Disney’s Hollywood Records and more. In the early 2000s, she moved to YAHOO! Music as Director of Marketing and Promotion which eventually led her to move to Nashville to work for Warner Bros. Records’ New Media Department and then as Clear Channel’s Senior Director of Content and Marketing. In January of 2008, Jennie launched Girlilla Marketing. Her company helps build brands and marketing strategies across genres and mediums including music, film and sports. Girlilla Marketing’s clients include Jason Aldean, Rascal Flatts, Vince Gill, Brett Young, Lee Ann Womack, Darius Rucker, Hootie & the Blowfish, Maddie & Tae, Chrissy Metz and more. Jennie is also a breast cancer survivor who led her company throughout her 15 months of cancer treatment. She was a 2019 Chairperson for the CMA Foundation and serves on the board of Music Health Alliance. She is a 2010 graduate of Leadership Music and is also a member of the CMA, SOURCE, and a supporter of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Jennie was included in Billboard‘s 2018 Country Power Player list and was a recipient of Nashville Business Journal’s Women In Music City Awards and in 2017 and 2018.

 

Stephanie Wright (UMG Nashville, Senior VP, A&R)

For 20 years, Stephanie Wright has been an integral part of Universal Music Group’s A&R department, where she aids A&R initiatives for Capitol, EMI, MCA and Mercury, including talent recruitment, artist development and overseeing respective recording projects for UMG artists such as Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan, Chris Stapleton, Dierks Bentley, George Strait, Jon Pardi, Little Big Town and more. Her major artist signings include Sam Hunt, Kacey Musgraves, Jordan Davis, Brandon Lay, Kassi Ashton, Adam Hambrick, and Parker McCullom. A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Stephanie came to the music business through her cousins, the Platinum-selling sibling trio SHeDAISY. Since then, Stephanie has been instrumental in critically-acclaimed albums including Lee Ann Womack’s Call Me Crazy, Kacey Musgraves’ Same Trailer Different Park, and Sam Hunt’s Montevallo. She also engages with the publishing community, seeking the perfect songs and writer collaborations for her artists’ projects. She is on the board of the T. J. Martell Foundation (Southern Region) and is a member of the ACM, CMA, Recording Academy and N.O.W..