About The Management Trust

 

The seeds of The Management Trust were sown through a chance meeting between Jake Gold and Allan Gregg in 1985.

At the time, Gold was a young (27), underfunded but energetic Manager who had broken his first act, New Regime. Gregg was an established market and public opinion pollster with a passion for, but no real experience in, business. A mutual friend put them together when Gregg was trying to draw attention of the industry to a high school musician friend while Gold was recruited to put together a showcase event. The showcase was a failure but the experience forged on of the most successful partnerships in the history of the Canadian music business.

The arrangement the two struck was that Gold would be the frontline manager, running the day to day affairs of the company and Gregg would be the ‘silent’ partner using understanding of popular culture and business to assist Gold in marketing and legal affairs. Reflecting the relationship, the fledgling company was named Jacob J. Gold and Associates and the two set out to discover new talent for their roster.

Continuing their pattern of serendipity, within the first year, a friend sent Gregg a tape of basement recordings by an unknown Kingston band with the whimsical name, The Tragically Hip. Impressed with the raw passion of the performance, Gold contacted the band and arranged for them to come to Toronto to play an opening slot for a Rolling Stone clone band. Within thirty-seconds of their opening song, Gold and Gregg knew they were witnessing something special. They signed the band that night and for the next 17-years proceeded to forge perhaps the most successful musical career the country has witnessed; thus establishing a pattern that has set the company apart from other management companies, ever since.

Gold and Gregg signed The Hip not only to a management contract, but also offered to be their co-publishers and fund their recordings. The arrangement was to be partners in a career; to invest in the band’s future; to stick with them even if no one shared their belief in their Artist’s vision; and never sacrifice the long term for short term opportunity, a philosophy that continues to guide The Management Trust to this day.

Since then, The Management Trust has been cited 3-times as Managers of the Year by the Canadian Music Industry and has been instrumental in launching the careers of The Watchmen, David Gogo and Big Wreck. In each instance, the company discovered the artist, worked with them to develop their craft, funded their first recording and negotiated their major label agreements, making them one of the only Artist Management companies to dedicate themselves to true artist development.

Today, The Management Trust continues in exactly the same vein, and is on the precipice of breaking the careers of an entirely new roster of rising superstars.