Panos Panay '94 is the founding managing director of Berklee's Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (BerkleeICE) as well as a passionate entrepreneur and active startup mentor in the creative media space. As the founder of Sonicbids, he created the leading platform for bands to book gigs and market themselves online, building a subscriber network of 550,000 bands and 35,000 promoters from more than 100 countries. He led the company as CEO for 13 years, from its inception until after its successful acquisition by Backstage LLC in a deal backed by Guggenheim Partners.
He writes about startups and entrepreneurship for blogs and publications such as Huffington Post, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company, and he has been named to Inc. magazine's "Inc. 500,” Fast Company's "Fast 50," BostInno's "50 on Fire," and Boston Business Journal’s “40 under 40.” Panay has delivered guest lectures at universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Brown University, as well as at industry events including South by Southwest (SXSW), Marché International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale (Midem), and TEDx. He serves on a number of boards.
