Caroline Yim is a Partner and Co-Head of Hip-Hop/R&B at WME. Yim’s extensive roster features Grammy award winners and nominees, including Jhené Aiko, Daniel Caesar, Giveon, Kehlani, Swae Lee, Silk Sonic, and Ella Mai.

Yim began her career at MCA Records, and then transitioned to ICM Partners where she became a leading music agent. Yim has received numerous accolades for her achievements within the music industry. She was named to Billboard’s “Women in Music” list from 2015-2018 and was included in Billboard’s 2015 “40 Under 40” list. She was also featured on Billboard’s " Hip-Hop Power Players List" for the past five years in addition to being recognized as one of Variety’s 2016 “New Leaders.” Most recently, Yim was named to Pollstar’s “2021 Women of Live” and “2022 Impact 50” lists.

Yim has been an active supporter of Big Brothers Big Sisters LA, starting off as a Women in Entertainment mentor before joining the board in 2018. In early 2020, Yim co-founded the Asian American Collective, a community organization that fosters growth, education, and connection for current and future Asian American creatives. She graduated from UCLA with a degree in Political Science.

Eric Wong, born in New York, NY is the President, East West Records, and Head of Global A&R, Warner Music Group.

Wong grew up obsessed with music, and at age 16, went from devotedly studying the sales charts each week to an internship while still in high school. A summer internship position at WEA Distribution (through Y.E.S., a program for minority high school students) led to yet another internship at Atlantic Records. While attending New York University, Wong became a college rep for EMI Records. In 1997, while still at school, he was hired at V2 Records, where he was eventually promoted to product manager, overseeing artists such as Moby, Underworld, and Stereophonics.  

In 1999, Wong joined the Island Def Jam Music group. As Vice President of Marketing, Wong developed campaigns for a diverse group of acts which included Bon Jovi, Fall Out Boy, Rihanna, Slayer, Sum 41, Christina Milian and more. In 2006, he went to work for Bad Boy Entertainment and Atlantic Records, serving simultaneously as Chief Marketing Officer of Bad Boy and Senior Vice President of Marketing at Atlantic. In this dual role, he was able to get more deeply involved in hip-hop while keeping a hand in the rock and pop he also loved. 

Wong points to the opportunity to work on Jay-Z’s landmark 2009 album The Blueprint 3 as a defining moment in his career, working alongside one of the greatest marketers and one of the greatest artists in hip-hop history. Seeking additional challenges, in 2009, he founded Wong Management, where he worked closely with Mariah Carey. 

In 2011, he returned to the Island Def Jam Music Group as Executive Vice President of Marketing, executing creative marketing strategies for artists including Kanye West, Rihanna, Avicii, The-Dream, Fall Out Boy, The Killers, Toni Braxton, Babyface and others. His responsibilities expanded to oversee the label group’s marketing, digital, creative, artist development, video promotion, and video production departments. In 2014, Wong assumed the role of Executive Vice President/General Manager of Island Records.

Wong says that his wide-ranging experiences in the music business—working with different departments and with different genres—is key to his success in leading a staff to maximize projects from developing a rising superstar like Shawn Mendes (Grammy Nominated and three platinum albums in three years), Demi Lovato (Grammy Nominated), Mike Posner (Grammy Nominated), Nick Jonas, to growing a Hall of Fame career like Bon Jovi (whose most recent album rose to Number One on the charts two separate times). He is equally proud of his involvement in Fall Out Boy’s breakthrough and in Mariah Carey’s comeback, and looks forward to the challenges and opportunities that come with new ways people are consuming and discovering music.

In 2018, Wong was named the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Island Records, overseeing operations for the entire label. He oversaw label operations and strategy for Island’s entire roster which include artists such as Shawn Mendes, Demi Lovato, Nick Joans, Elton John, The Killers, and more.

In 2020, Wong became President & Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Recorded Music for Warner Music Group, which is home to artists including Ed Sheeran, Cardi B, Coldplay, Bruno Mars, and more. Wong serves as the head of worldwide marketing, expanding careers for global artists and working closely with the company’s labels as well as overseeing Warner’s international A&R function to achieve close collaboration across Warner’s network of local repertoire centers.

In 2024, Wong became President, East West Records, and Head of Global A&R, Warner Music Group.  Wong leads transformative initiatives that amplify creative collaboration, streamline global operations, and leverage data-driven insights to optimize performance.

Wong, a previous board of director for the Asian American Arts Alliance, was honored by the Foundation in October 2007 for his support of the organization whose commitment is to help local Asian American artists and art groups in the performing and visual arts access more funding and visibility for their work.

Wong was featured on Billboard’s list of “Forty Under Forty Power Players” in 2012 and 2015, and in 2017, 2018, and 2018 he appeared on the magazine’s “Branding Power Players” list. In 2018, he was featured in Variety’s “New Power of New York” list and Billboard’s “From the Desk of…” column.   In 2019 and 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 Wong also appeared on the Billboard Power Player list.     

Wong, a voting member of NARAS, holds a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA), an MBA in Marketing, is a certified life coach and resides in New York City.

Far East Movement (FM) hails from Koreatown, Los Angeles but has always had a global outlook on music. The group attained platinum hits ranging from the US, the United Kingdom, China, to South Korea. Since becoming the first Asian American group to hit #1 on the Billboard Charts with their smash hit “Like a G6” and following up with another Top 5 on Billboard with “Rocketeer” co-written by Bruno Mars, they have kept the momentum going most recently with two #1 hits (“Bamboo” and “Lovebird”) on China’s Netease platform in 2018. FM also showcased itself as one of the most exciting touring acts in world music performing at some of the most prestigious festivals all around the world like Ultra Music Festival, Tomorrowland, and Electric Daisy Carnival.

FM’s current focus is Transparent Arts, a company they built with their childhood friends, focused on supporting talented artists in different mediums. Their roster includes global pop icons The Rose, actress Liza Soberano, rapper Dumbfoundead, and DJ/ Producer Yultron. They’ve also ventured into other fields, opening up a popular New American restaurant named Intercrew in the heart of Koreatown.

Michelle An is President of Creative Strategy at Interscope Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. A Chicago-native and Northwestern University alum, Michelle has been at Interscope for over 17 years working with some of the world’s biggest music artists including Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. Michelle produces and executes artist visuals tied to an artist’s music project, along with overseeing artist marketing. Michelle has produced films alongside Billie Eilish, including The World’s a Little Blurry documentary for Apple TV+, as well as Selena Gomez’s documentary My Mind & Me. Michelle has been involved with several artist concert films and visual films like Kacey Musgraves’ “Star-crossed” which ran on Paramount+.

Michelle has been named one of Billboard’s Women in Music for multiple years in a row, has been recognized as a Variety Hitmaker, and is a 4-time GRAMMY nominated producer. Michelle was honored as 2021’s Music Commissioner of the Year by the MVPA’s made up of her industry peers. She is also a member of the Producer’s Guild of America.  Michelle’s past ad agency experience, also allows her to effectively work with brands such as Nike, Gucci and Dolby Atmos, finding creative and organic ways for major brands to weave into an artist’s creative vision.  Michelle also commissioned OneRepublic’s groundbreaking “Kids” VR music video experience.

Michelle manages a creative and marketing team of over 40 people driving marketing campaigns and producing visual content that garners an estimated 1 billion monthly views on-line for the record label.

Mike Van is the President of Billboard where he is responsible for operating all aspects of the brand globally.  In his previous role as Executive Vice President of Global Partnerships, Billboard experienced unprecedented growth and set all time revenue and profitability records.

Mike brings over twenty five years of advertising, marketing and media sales/ brand partnerships experience including positions at TBWA Chiat/Day, Complex, Electronic Arts and Pandora.

He was recently named to Gold House’s 2023 #A100 list where every May, the A100 honors 100 Asian Pacific leaders who made the greatest impact on culture and society over the past year. He currently resides in Los Angeles and is married to Julie with twins Mila and Luca.

Puja Patel is a career music media professional, journalist, festival curator, and consultant. She most recently served as the Editor-in-Chief of Pitchfork and co-host of The Pitchfork Review podcast and was previously the Editor-in-Chief of SPIN, the culture editor of Deadspin, and a masthead contributor for MTV and the Village Voice. Her writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, VICE, and FADER among others. Patel serves on the advisory board of NYU’s Clive Davis Institute and is a founding board member of Building Beats, a non-profit organization that provides music education and developmental skills to underserved youth across New York City and Los Angeles.

Ronny Ho is the Head of Dance & Electronic Development at Spotify, where she leads audience growth and engagement, oversees curation and programming, and develops innovative programs across the diverse array of dance and electronic genres.

In her previous role with Spotify, Ronny worked directly with the co-heads of the global Music team to identify audience and genre trends that informed the launch of global initiatives such as RADAR, track IDs, K-Pop, cultural moments and ultimately led to more inclusive programs and decision making.

Ronny also founded Spotify’s Asian Employee Resource Group (ERG), where she worked across the organization to help build the framework of Employee Resource Groups at Spotify. She led the Asian ERG for two and half years, building internal programs to foster community, as well as spearheading external programs. She also built new content brands such as Jasmine, Dope AF, tapioca, the Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and the global Stop Asian Hate hub to discover, foster, and build the Asian creator community,

Ronny joined the Spotify Business Development team in April 2016, where she analyzed partnership opportunities to drive subscriber growth around the world, including Samsung, Vodafone, AT&T, Telia, and more. Before Spotify, Ronny worked at Citigroup Equity Capital Markets, where she was instrumental in executing IPOs and equity raises across the financial, energy & power, and technology industries.

During her free time, Ronny enjoys baking all sorts of things, catching shows at the local venues and traveling. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and human computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University.

An unprecedented track record of breaking artists in every corner of the globe and a personal journey that led her from Singapore to leadership posts at the music industry’s top companies affirms Wendy Ong as the preeminent modern music executive. As President of TaP Music, she oversees a diverse roster of artists, including Dua Lipa, Ellie Goulding, Lana Del Rey, Noah Cyrus, Dermot Kennedy, Hailee Steinfeld, and more.

 

“Living in so many different places and collaborating with such a wide variety of people allows you to be in tune with the pulse of what’s happening globally,” she says. “In my career, I’ve also had the rare opportunity to work in nearly every genre of music from hip hop to classical. I draw from all of that when working to realize my artist’s vision.”

 

Her first job was at BMG Singapore, specializing in Soundtracks, Jazz, and New Age. After two years she moved to Hong Kong where she took on supervising pop releases for Asia Pacific.

 

Upon relocating to NYC she embarked on the seminal role of International Marketing at Clive Davis’s Arista Records. Over the next decade, she went on to launch OutKast worldwide and traveled alongside Diddy, helping to expand his empire internationally. She worked extensively with artists such as P!nk, Alicia Keys, and The Strokes. Following Arista, she joined the Metropolitan Opera before EMI sought her out as Head of Classical in 2011.

 

Following stints at Capitol Music and Interscope Records, she joined Roc Nation as Head of Marketing where she drove campaigns for JAY-Z, Rihanna, Jaden Smith, and more. In late 2018, she became Tap Music’s Head of Marketing and was promoted to President of TaP Music a year later.

 

Wendy is based in the Tap Music Los Angeles office.