Raw Power Management founder Craig Jennings says the company’s new leadership structure marks “evolution, not revolution”, as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Established in 2006, the international artist management firm is home to acts including Bring Me The Horizon, Bullet For My Valentine, Don Broco, The Damned, At The Drive-In, The Mars Volta and new acts Jordan Adetunji and Heartworms, among others.
Matt Ash and Don Jenkins were promoted to joint CEOs at the company last month, with Jennings moving to the role of executive chairman following his cancer diagnosis and recovery.
Speaking in the July issue of Music Week, Jennings said: “I don’t think I’ll ever retire. But it’s time to take a different role in terms of strategising the overall feel of the company and looking for new opportunities. Nothing will change for the artists, but it’s time for Matt and Don to take more of a leadership role.
“It’s a 110% job [being CEO]. I’ve recovered incredibly well [from cancer], but I’ve probably got 100% in me now. I don’t want to travel as much as I used to, stuff like that. To use football parlance, these guys are the forwards and I’m the playmaker.”
Ash, who joined in 2008, described the move as a "natural progression, post-pandemic”.
“I feel like myself and Don have taken on more responsibility for the running of the company and making decisions that affect its fundamental direction,” he said.
Former commercial director Jenkins added: “It’s a good time to create a new energy around the Raw Power leadership. This is a vocational job. My family has been brought up with me doing this, so it’s fantastic to get to this point.”
Years ago, everyone had their jobs. The record company did their job. The publisher did their job. The manager did their job. It feels like management now has to do so much more to help run stuff
Craig Jennings, Raw Power Management
ATC Management announced a majority investment in Raw Power in May 2024, bringing the two management businesses together under one roof.
As part of the independently-owned ATC Group, ATC Management represents more than 60 artists, composers and producers, including Nick Cave, The Smile, PJ Harvey, Yaeji, The Hives, Sleaford Mods, Johnny Marr, Black Country, New Road, Kelela, Isobel Waller-Bridge and Kwes.
Under the partnership, Raw Power’s UK team, including Jennings and Jenkins, relocated to ATC Management’s London headquarters, with the alliance “mirrored in the US” with the merging of both companies’ Los Angeles-based operations. Jennings reflected on how the link-up was working out so far.
"We’ve consolidated our businesses together and we have a fantastic relationship," he said. "I wouldn’t say there’s been anything that’s come through that’s been game-changing yet, but we’re continuing to look for opportunities. We’ve gone into a public company, which ATC is, and we’ve wanted to maintain our own identity, while also being a team player. I think that we’ve done both.
"I was very keen for us to merge with ATC, which was something a lot of people didn’t see coming. One of the reasons to do it was to open new horizons for us, if you’ll pardon the pun, and different opportunities that’ll come from working with different people.”
Elsewhere, Jennings moved to qualify his comments about record labels in his 2024 interview with Music Week, where he declared: "Labels used to be the kings, they would run the business, and I think managers run the business now.”
"The labels will have a big part to play," he said. "Our relationship with our labels is incredible, especially with Sony on Bring Me The Horizon. Me and Matt have a meeting with the UK company in a couple of days, with 30 people in the room talking about the next level for Horizon – that is something very special. We also have an incredible relationship with Spinefarm on Bullet For My Valentine. What I was trying to say is that there’s much more responsibility now on the managers.
"Years ago, everyone had their jobs. The record company did their job. The publisher did their job. The manager did their job. It feels like management now has to do so much more to help run stuff. With us having our own marketing, our own digital, our own A&R, we’re actually acting like a record company in our own way, but from a management perspective. It feels a lot of the time that, if we don’t drive stuff, it doesn’t happen, especially on the early development of an act.”
And as Raw Power toasts its first two decades in business, Jennings shared a message to the music industry – reiterating that it's an "'evolution not revolution’ situation".
"I’m not looking at the 20 years we’ve done and thinking, ‘We’ve made it’ – I feel this is the start of another push to go bigger and better," he said. "All I know is that we do things in what we think is the right way and, going forward with Don and Matt as joint CEOs, that’s exactly what we’re going to keep doing.
"We will keep believing in our artists and doing our thing in the best way we can, always putting our artists first in every single way, fighting the hardest we can."
Subscribers can read the full Raw Power Management interview, featuring Jennings, Ash and Jenkins, in the July edition of Music Week.
