KEN KRAGEN

Ken Kragen is a Strategic Partner with Rosenzweig & Company. A graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School, Ken Kragen’s distinguished career has touched on nearly every aspect of the music and entertainment industries.  He has successfully managed some of the world's most important entertainers, including Kenny Rogers, Lionel Richie, Trisha Yearwood, Olivia Newton-John, The Bee Gees, and many others. During the past few years he has devoted an increasing amount of his time to writing, teaching and consulting work for leading non-profits and corporations. He also continues to produce various television projects and major events.

His belief that “It’s much easier to do the impossible than the ordinary” has enabled him to organize the historic recording session “We are the World”  in just 28 days to fight starvation in Africa; create “Hands Across America,” a continuous line of five million people together holding hands from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean raising funds and awareness for poverty in the U.S.; and stage “Netaid,” an unprecedented global charity event merging Cisco System’s technology with the United Nations’ war on poverty. He also played an important role in the original “LiveAid,” and, with his friend Quincy Jones, staged part of the 1992 Presidential Inauguration of President Clinton.
 
Ken is one of the few private citizens to receive the prestigious United Nation’s Peace Metal. He has many other awards and honors including two MTV Awards, several Grammy Nominations, the International Citizen of the Year Award from the Los Angeles Business Council, EBONY’s American Black Achievement Award and an American Music Award.

Ken Kragen is the author of the best-selling book "Life is a Contact Sport". He has lectured at many schools including USC, University of Tennessee, Harvard Business School, and each year teaches the highly popular “Stardom Strategies for Musicians” course at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.
  
Currently, Ken is a consultant for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF); the renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and a major fundraising project called Rallysong 100..  He recently sold a reality television show to Fremantle (which produces American Idol and has 20 other shows on the air); shot a pilot for a show he will co-host called INSIDE MUSIC; and has two other TV projects in development. He is writing a book called “Doing Well By Doing Good” with Tony Robbins. And that’s only part of what’s on his plate at present.