Binta Niambi Brown

Binta Niambi Brown is the Founder and CEO of Fermata Entertainment Ltd. and Big Mouth Records LLC, a startup that is innovating a new business model for the music industry.  A former corporate lawyer at each of Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Kirkland & Ellis (where she was a partner), Binta has advised global entertainment and media companies such as Dreamworks, Time Warner, Universal, the Washington Post Co., HBO, AOL and IAC. She has robust public policy experience (having advised the White House, a former presidential candidate, and several governors and US senators), and has advised many technology companies including 2U Inc., which IPOed on the Nasdaq in 2014.  She holds leadership roles in the SummerStage Music Festival (New York) and the American Theatre Wing, and  is a trustee or board member of each of the American Theatre Wing, New York City Parks Foundation, Barnard College, Columbia University, and is an advisor to the New York Philharmonic.  Binta is a trained musician and multi-instrumentalist who has performed internationally and throughout the United States including Carnegie Hall and live music venues throughout New York City.  She has been recognized as one of the Fortune 40 Under 40 Business Leaders, the Root’s 100 Most Influential African-Americans, Crain’s New York 40 under 40, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.  She has been featured in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, the Washington Post, the New York Times, on CNN and on NPR.  She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, and the Columbia University School of Law, Binta was also a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Business and Government.