Bulletin board is now accepting nominations for the Chip Hooper Award, named in honor of the legendary talent agent, father and photographer who was instrumental in building the Paradigm talent agency, which was purchased by Wasserman Music in 2021.
Hooper died after a battle with cancer in 2016. The award was created in 2018 as part of a partnership between Bulletin boardhis colleagues at Wasserman Music and Hooper's daughter, Valerie Hooperand the son Max Hooper. Now in its third year, the award is presented to a young rising star working as an executive in artist representation, management or concert promotion.
In 2018, the inaugural prize was awarded to Kelly Stebalski of Live Nation, who first met Hooper after meeting him at an industry conference. she later left her job at William Morris in New York to come work with him representing acts such as Phish and Dave Matthews Band. In 2019, Sara Bollwinkelformerly with Paradigm and now senior vice president of Wasserman Music, won the award.
The Chip Hooper Award will be presented for the third time at this year's Billboard Live Music Awards, which are scheduled to take place on November 14 at the One Hotel in West Hollywood. Nominations for the award are now open. Although there is no age limit, remember that the award is for young professionals on the rise.
To nominate someone, you can email their name, title and company, along with a brief description of why they deserve the honor and a list of some of their achievements over the past 18 months, to dave. brooks@billboard.com. The deadline for nominations is Friday (18 October) at 5pm. PT/8 p.m. ET.
