Sophie Small (GB)

Sophie Small is the COO of Music Gateway, a music technology company designed to empower creatives towards building sustainable careers in the music industry. She cut her teeth in music at Festival Republic, the country’s largest festival production company before taking a couple of years out of the industry to work in law. Having joined Music Gateway in 2014, she has worked her way up as the business has also grown. At just 23 Sophie led her first major nation-wide campaign from inception to fulfilment, managing Music Gateway’s lead team, in partnership with Gibson Brands and Argos & Metropolis to encourage the next generation to create music. The prize package for the two winners, as well as thousands of pounds’ worth of equipment was shipped to 20 schools and academies across the country. The competition also had an extensive and impressive judging panel, including music industry professionals from 20th Century Fox, Sony ATV, Warner Chappell and the legendary musician, Dave Stewart. She is one of a growing number of young women working in technology, which although being one of the fastest growing industries, still has had a significantly lower percentage of females than most other UK work sectors, at just 17% of Technology workers in the UK. As well as looking after the general day to day operations of the business, Sophie oversees the licensing of the catalogue across TV, Film, Advertisement and Gaming.