On the back of a history-making debut by Ariana Grande, who claims the top three songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week (tying the Beatles), Scooter Braun has appointed his longtime deputy Allison Kaye to partner at Ithaca Holdings LLC, which houses SB Projects. She was previously president of music at the 12-year-old company, overseeing the careers of every client on the SBP roster, which includes Grande, Justin Bieber, Dan + Shay, Zac Brown Band and Tori Kelly, among others.
Kaye has also played an integral role in the company’s movie soundtrack supervision, film production, and philanthropic endeavors — among them 2017’s One Love Manchester concert to benefit victims of a bomb blast in the UK city outside of a Grande concert, and the Hand in Hand telethon to aid hurricane-ravaged Houston and Puerto Rico.
“This public announcement is long overdue,” Braun tells Variety. “Allison has acted as my partner for a decade. There would be no company without the genius and hard work of Allison Kaye. I’m honored to call her my friend and partner and know when I go in to the office tomorrow no one can put me in my place like Allison can. She is simply the best at what she does and we are all better for it. Here is to another decade of talking to each other every day, morning and night. I’m sure she isn’t looking forward to it.”
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Kaye’s promotion coincides with recent Grammy wins for several SBP acts as well as the just-completed purchase of Atlas Publishing by Ithaca Holdings and the announced partnership with Zach Katz’s Raised In Space, which identifies tech and music initiatives ripe for investment.
“It has been a privilege and honor to work with Scooter and our incredible roster of artists for the last decade,” says Kaye. “I am infinitely proud of the work we have done with our unparalleled staff and look forward to many more years of continued success in music and beyond.”
Adds Grande of Kaye: “She’s one of the most brilliant people in the galaxy and I’m so excited about this. I can’t imagine a more deserving person or a harder worker.”
Since joining SB Projects in 2009, Kaye, a longtime confidant of Bieber’s, has played a key role in such successes as his $155-million grossing arena tour and chart-topping singles “What Do You Mean” and “Sorry” along with “Despacito,” which featured Bieber; the hit song “Tequila” by Dan + Shay (co-managed with Jason Owen’s Sandbox Entertainment); and Grande’s 2018 “Sweetener” album which had the largest streaming week for a pop album by a female artist ever — until “thank u, next” was released on Feb. 8.