Members' Council

The Members’ Council is focused on making sure that we are in close touch with the views, concerns and needs of you, our members. Its other focuses are on strategic oversight, reviewing company performance and holding the Board to account. It approves the corporate strategy, annual budget and accounts, and the appointment of our CEO and Board members.

Read on to learn about the different roles and the election process or scroll down to see our current Council Members.

Makeup of the Council

The Council is now made up of 24 Council Members:

10 writer Council Members and 9 publisher Council Members (elected by our Principal Voting and Voting members)
Four independent non-executive Council Members who bring valuable expertise from outside the music industry
One executive director (our CEO)

The Council will gradually reduce in size to 21 members by 2024.

Chair and Deputy Chair

The Council is led by a Chair and a Deputy Chair (publisher and writer respectively) who are elected by the Council from among the Council Members. The Chair and Deputy Chair are always one writer and one publisher, so if the elected Chair is a publisher, the Deputy Chair must be a writer and vice versa. They each serve for a three-year term with a maximum of two terms.

The Chair leads the Council and is responsible for its overall effectiveness in directing PRS. They set the Council’s overall agenda, chair Council meetings and the AGM, encourage Council Members’ performance and effective decision making and set the ethical tone.

The Deputy Chair supports the Chair in implementing key structures and processes for the effective governance of PRS. They promote the interests of all members and the long-term sustainability of the business.

Our current Chair is Julian Nott and Deputy Chair is Alexander Kassner.

President

The President leads the Members’ Council in its focus of being in close touch with the membership. They are appointed from the Writer Council Members for a two-year term with a maximum of two terms.

The President leads initiatives to ensure the best possible member experience, connects with existing members about improving PRS’ services, carries out outreach activity to attract new members and acts as an ambassador and advocate for PRS at external events.

Our current President is Michelle Escoffery.

Length of time on the Members’ Council

A Council Member’s term of office lasts three years. Council Members can serve for a maximum of five terms which do not have to be served consecutively. This is so we can make sure there is a healthy turnover of new voices and to encourage diversity.

The election of writer and publisher Council Members

Principal Voting members can put themselves forward to be a Council Member and can nominate other Principal Voting members to do the same. The Members’ Council Ballot determines the eligibility of candidates for appointment or re-appointment to the Council by members at our Annual General Meeting (AGM).

Electoral colleges – writer members may only vote for writer candidates and publisher members may only vote for publisher candidates. This is to maximise the accountability of each constituency
Designated Publisher Council Members – nominated representatives from the three highest earning publishers sit on the Members’ Council. As these nominated representatives are not elected, they do not participate in the Ballot for the other publishers who are elected at the AGM