Gigi Johnson

Gigi Johnson is inaugural director of the UCLA Center for Music Innovation and an expert on how advances in technology, like streaming and file sharing to name two, have broken the traditional economic structures of the music industry and other media and reshaped them. A lecturer in the music industry minor in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Johnson teaches digital marketing and branding for musicians and music organizations.

Before joining the school of music, Johnson taught for a decade at the UCLA Anderson School of Management and was executive director at what is now the Center for Management of Enterprises in Media, Entertainment and Sports. Johnson’s corporate background includes being general manager of two cable/satellite family-oriented video-on-demand channels and a decade financing media companies.

As the executive director of the Maremel Institute, a 15-year-old, think tank that blends research and building new experiences and programs in media, music and education, Johnson teaches and speaks internationally on future impacts of digital disruption on media and cultural systems.