John Pullan

Each year I attend Glastonbury in partnership with a charity called Staus Creative.

We occupy a tent in the Kidzfield and fill it with musical instruments. The theme is from Kidzfield to Main Stage, although the main focus if fun, to inspire the next generation.

Parents can bring their children in and have a lesson or just jam. We have a drum off and give away two kits.

Through my relationships, we are also able to invite musicians that are playing the Pyramid Stage that year, to come in and get involved.

Helping to maintain and grow Roland's brand value, working with key Musical Directors & Drummers to promote product, via placement and key marketing activities.

Day to day responsibilities included -

• Seek out new persona lead talent to represent the brand
• Seed gear in return for placement and marketing activities
• Work with local sales units, using artists to gain traction
• Support professional drummers that are on the road with backline
• Maintain key relationships
• Attend concerts, events and manage artist logistics
• Work with Brand Management to curate marketing content with key artists
• Work with social media teams guiding them on trends and exciting stories
• Support R&D by connecting relevant artists with engineers
• Understand & support localised markets within Europe
• Regular travel within Europe, LA & Japan

Establishing a dedicated department within Artist relations focusing on "Live"

Key responsibilities included -

• Creating a tier based system to support live artists at all levels
• Creating a network of backline providers in Europe to support artists on the road
• Seeking out product placement and marketing opportunities
• Dedicated project to supporting emerging talent
• Artists sales
• Maintain key relationships with Musicians, Tour Managers, Musical Directors & Techs
• Product demonstration
• Product feedback under NDA

This role helped me to build a great network within the live music industry. It also gave me the autonomy to fund some projects and support the future generation, establish a strong presence in the music education sector & work with many creative people.

Manage Roland's Drum product category in Europe.

This position had a wide range of responsibilities, all of which, impact all of the steps of a customer journey. From product development, in Japan, through to launch, product in life, product maturity and product end of life.

Key responsibilities included -

• Advising key stakeholders, being the "eyes & ears" of the drum category for Roland in Europe
• Manage a team of Product Specialists based across Europe
• Understand regional cultures & markets
• Localised marketing support
• Drive sales through marketing lead activity
• Provide key feedback to product development
• Product testing
• Work with local sales teams to drive business
• Supply chain management & forecasting
• Staff training
• Arrange, execute and attend key events across Europe
• Artist Relations
• Reporting back to company directors
• Work with Sales Ops on maintaining margins & operating profit
• Dealer relationships & support

Working as a drum specialist with one of the UK's largest music retailers.

Notable achievement - Highest drum sales across the company in 2015 over £100K

As soon as I left school, I started teaching drum lessons for income. After quickly becoming busy, I rented a small property in the town centre and started teaching from there. I took on a guitar teacher and outgrew the space.

I moved to a larger space and converted it into a large teaching facility with recording studio's. My staff grew and the company grew.

We expanded into schools doing peripatetic tuition as well as after school music clubs where we created bands and built up to public performances. At it's peak, I had 25 staff working in schools across West Yorkshire.

I also expanded into corporate team building days and worked with some notable clients including Bradford Council 7 Asda.