Bob Frank
Bob Frank is an Entrepreneur and C-Level Executive in the Music and Film Business with over 30 years extensive leadership and management experience. Frank is the founder and CEO of Bob Frank Entertainment / BFE (www.bobfrankent.com) which was launched in 2012 as a multi-faceted entertainment company with proprietary interests in Damson Lane Productions (Film & TV), Red River Entertainment and BFR (Record Labels), Admiral Lane (Music Publishing), Bob Frank Distribution / BFD (Record Label Distribution). BFE also owns 33% of the Charlie Daniels owned catalog masters which BFE acquired from Charlie Daniels founded Blue Hat Records in 2022.
BFD is a top global sub-distributor for Sony Orchard with over 100 distributed labels including EDEL, Righteous Babe, Charly and many others.
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From 2016 - 2018 BFE was engaged by BMG to help lead their Filmed Entertainment Division with award winning Director Joe Thomas. The Division produced concert films for various partners including Direct TV, AXS and PBS. Projects included Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks, Michael McDonald and Bad Company.
In January 2010 Frank co-founded the digital syndication network Qello Concerts which was established to broadcast HD concert films and music programming on all SVOD distribution platforms. Frank served in various capacities from 2010 – 2018 including President, Chief Content Officer and Chairman where he managed the executive team in the Series A and Series B investment rounds. Allen & Co. were brought on in 2014 thru 2015 to find suitable strategic investors. In January 2018 Qello was sold to Stingray Entertainment, a publicly traded media company based in Montreal, Canada. Frank led the Qello Board through the acquisition process.
Frank was the Chairman (2007 – 2011) and Board member (2007 – 2014) of the global independent music organization Merlin (www.merlinnetwork.org) representing over 10,000 companies globally. Merlin is a digital rights music licensing partner for independent record labels, distributors, and other music rights holders around the world.
From 1999 - 2009 Frank was Global President and co-founder of E1 Music (formerly Koch Entertainment) and E1 Music Publishing (formerly Koch Publishing), the music content divisions of publicly traded E1 Entertainment. Under his leadership E1 Music placed over 200 albums on the Billboard Independent chart during 2001-2009 maintaining the #1 ranking per Billboard for the period. During this period Koch averaged $150 million per year in sales and twice reached $200 million in sales globally. In 2005 Frank and co-founder Michael Koch sold Koch Entertainment to E1 for $84.5 million after engaging with multiple other strategic suitors.
Prior to Koch, Frank was President and co-founder with Walter Yetnikoff of the Velvel Music Group from its inception in 1997 through the sale to Koch International in 1999. Velvel was launched with CIBC Oppenheimer leading the initial strategic investment round. Frank coordinated the Koch acquisition of the Velvel Music Group resulting in the founding of Koch Entertainment in June of 1999. Before launching Velvel, he spent eight years with PolyGram, primarily at Mercury Records in Nashville, where he was GM / Senior Vice President under CEO Luke Lewis. During this period the label released 10x platinum albums from Shania Twain and Billy Ray Cyrus, two of the most successful albums of all-time. During his tenure at Mercury Nashville, sales increased from $16 million annually to over $100 million and the division was one of the most profitable labels in PolyGram’s US operations for four years in a row from 1993-1996.
Frank was selected to attend the PolyGram Senior Management program at the London Business School in 1994. He was also sent by PolyGram to the esteemed Center for Creative Leadership in North Carolina in 1995 and the PolyGram joint music/film training program in Los Angeles in 1996. Frank has a BS Degree in Economics from St. John’s University and an MBA in Management from the New York Institute of Technology. In 2006 and 2007 Frank was named as one of the most influential executives in hip-hop in the “Power 30” issue of Source magazine. He has been an active participant in the A2IM Organization which represents the Independent label community in the U.S. and has served as Chairman of the International Committee. Frank was a member of the eMusic Senior Management Advisory Committee from 2004 - 2009. Frank served as a MySpace Music Board observer on behalf of Merlin in 2011. He was elected as a Governor for the New York Chapter of The Recording Academy in 2008 and 2009. Frank has also been involved with the TJ Martell Foundation music industry charity which raises money to support innovative research for childhood leukemia and other forms of cancer. He served from
2005 – 2013 as Co-Chairman of the Executive Committee for the annual Martell Family Day, a key fundraising event for the TJ Martell charity and was honored with his family in 2009. Frank was also a member of the UJA Federation - Music for Youth Board which distributes funds for music programs and scholarships for underprivileged children in New York City and surrounding areas from 2005 - 2010.
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