Shawn McSpadden was born in Ft. Worth Texas but considers Nashville home.  Shawn attended Franklin Road Academy, where he played football and baseball, helping win two state championships, was captain of the football team, and President of his senior class.

College life started at Liberty University, followed by a transfer to Belmont University in the Fall of 1988. While attending Belmont, Shawn and his father Gary McSpadden started McSpadden Music Group where he was able to develop and publish artists and writers.

McSpadden Music Group grew quickly and became McSpadden-Smith Music with a full-scale management company as well as a catalog of over 20 staff songwriters and over 3,500 copyrights. Songs published by McSpadden - Smith Music were recorded by artists such as Faith Hill, Vince Gill, She Daisy, Earth Wind and Fire, Amy Grant and many others. The catalog contained over 30 #1 chart topping songs in both the Country and Christian Billboard charts. In 1998 McSpadden - Smith was purchased by Music and Media International and Shawn took over as VP/GM of Word Music publishing.

During his time as VP/GM for Word Music Publishing he also added the title of Senior VP of Artist and Repertoire for Word/Warner Bros. Records where he worked with Randy Travis, Sixpence None the Richer, MuteMath and Robert Randolph, among others. In 2004 Shawn left Word/ Warner Bros. Records to team up with Greg Hill at Greg Hill Management and began managing artists in both the Country and Christian industry.

 In 2006 the company became a part of Red Light Management where he worked alongside Coran Capshaw to develop the Nashville office and roster.

In 2023 after many years at Red Light Management Shawn became Managing Partner at Range Media Partners in Nashville Tennessee. Range Media Partners is a diverse company representing talent in Film/TV, Music, Sports and Influencers with offices in Santa Monica, Nashville, New York and London.

Shawn has served on the board of Music for the Soul, Belle Meade Plantation, the Gospel Music Association and NARAS. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Academy of Country Music and is Chairman of the board for the Academy’s Lifting Lives.  He completed Leadership Music in 2001 and is involved with Habitat for Humanity along with other charities.

Kylen Sharpe is an Agent in the Music department at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Sharpe is based in the Nashville office and works with such artists as Tim McGraw, Billy Currington, Shaboozey, Niko Moon, Danae Hays, Aaron Watson, Tyler Braden and developing clients Walker Montgomery, Clayton Mullen and Reid Haughton.  She is also responsible for booking fairs, festivals and rodeos throughout the mid-South for CAA's entire country roster including Keith Urban, Jelly Roll, Zac Brown Band, Sam Hunt, Cody Johnson and others.  

Sharpe began her career at APA and joined CAA in 2010.

Sharpe sits on the board (and serves as Vice Chair) at Monroe Harding and serves as a mentor, helping a young people transition out of the foster care system and in to adulthood.  She also serves as a mentor inside CAA working with a group of developing women in the support staff.  In 2015, Sharpe won the International Entertainment Buyers Association’s Rookie of the Year award.  In 2018, she was featured as an “Agent to Watch” in Variety’s music issue.

Sharpe graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a degree in Microbiology. 

Graduating from Belmont University in 2003 with a Music Business degree - I started my career at Stiff Entertainment working with Allison Krauss & Union Station during the Oh Brother Where Art Though phenomenon. From there I went on to Greg Hill Entertainment. While at GHE, I worked with several manager and artists (Phil Vassar, Rodney Atkins, Jamie O’Neal) and eventually partnered with Shawn McSpadden to move into a Day to Day Management role across his roster

While working in day to day management role with Shawn we represented artists in both Country and Christian Music. Greg Hill Entertainment eventually forged a partnership with Red Light Management and we became the Nashville office for RLM. Shawn and I were with Red Light for 16 years where we oversaw the careers of Third Day (garnering several gold and platinum records, Grammy awards, Dove Awards), Kip Moore (4 #1 songs at Country Radio, double platinum songs, international tours), Switchfoot and many others.

In 2023 I joined Range Media Partners and moved to full Artist Management. Today I currently manage Girl Named Tom (2021 winners of The Voice, signed to Republic), and Walker Montgomery. 

Prof. Erik Brynjolfsson is a Professor at Stanford and the Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab at the Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI). He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and holds appointments at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Stanford Department of Economics. Prof. Brynjolfsson is one of most widely-cited researchers studying the digital economy and co-author of five books including The Second Machine Age.

Christopher J. Fernandez, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s HR Services and Digital Employee Experiences worldwide team, has been with Microsoft since 2005. He leads global HR teams in developing end-to-end digital strategies across all HR systems, including AI-enabled HR, and oversees HR service delivery worldwide. His responsibilities extend to compensation, benefits, talent acquisition, learning, onboarding, and more. Fernandez has also held HR leadership roles for a wide portfolio of Microsoft’s global businesses, including hardware, Windows, Office, Gaming, the Artificial Intelligence and Research Group, and others.

Before joining Microsoft, Fernandez was a human resource leader at General Motors Corporation’s European organization in Zurich, Switzerland. He holds a Master of Human Resources and Labor Relations from Michigan State University (MSU), a Bachelor of Arts in American Public Affairs from James Madison College at MSU and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. He is active in several civic organizations and is a member of various professional associations.