Cary Sherman is Chairman and CEO of the RIAA, the organization representing the nation’s major music labels. RIAA’s member companies are responsible for creating, manufacturing, or distributing approximately 85 percent of all legitimate sound recordings sold in the United States. As Chairman and CEO, Sherman represents the interests of the $7 billion U.S. sound recording industry, which now derives more than half of its revenues from a variety of digital formats.

Most recently, Sherman spearheaded the voluntary “copyright alert” agreement between many of the nation’s largest ISPs and the music and film industries. He also helped negotiate a groundbreaking deal between music publishers and digital music services that simplifies licensing rules and enables a series of new cutting-edge business models.

Sherman graduated from Cornell University and Harvard Law School. An amateur musician and lyricist, he is the Chairman of the Board of the Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C. Sherman also serves on the boards of the Anti-Defamation League and BNA’s Patent, Trademark and Copyright Journal, and has served on numerous other boards, including the Copyright Society, the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts, The Computer Law Association, and The Computer Lawyer.