Lola Plaku, CEO of Lola Media Group, has officially announced the Girl Connected Mentorship Program in partnership with the Government of Canada and FACTOR (The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings.) Plaku founded the Girl Connected platform to empower female professionals and creatives with the necessary framework to achieve success and growth within the music industry.
A Toronto native herself, Plaku selected 20 Toronto-based women for the first chapter of the program, which will provide a year-long mentorship with an industry executive based on their area of interest. Riggs Morales (SVP of A&R/Artist Development at Atlantic Records), Krystyn Price (Director of Talent Relations at Complex Networks), Nicole Wyskoarko (EVP of Urban Operations at Interscope Geffen A&M Records) and Adam Zia (CEO, The Zia Firm) will serve as the first round of mentors in 2020. Each of them will task their mentee group with various project milestones throughout the year and meet with them quarterly to evaluate their work and offer professional advice. Mentees will also participate in various workshops with Canadian music professionals, which will be curated by Plaku and Girl Connected program lead, Maria Giuliana.
In their announcement, Plaku shared, “I’ve dedicated much of my career to contributing to the growth of artists, and I’m excited to do the same for women who are pursuing a career in the music business or are already a part of the industry but looking to elevate. We received 200 mentorship applications, all of which left me speechless! I’m truly looking forward to connecting one-on-one with each of the women selected for our first chapter.”
The Girl Connected Mentorship Program launch event will take place on Feb. 28 in Toronto at Daniels Spectrum event space, kicking off with a panel conversation (in partnership with PUMA) with all four mentors—Morales, Price, Wyskoarko and Zia. The panel is open to the public, and tickets are available for purchase HERE. Outside of the mentorship program, Plaku will continue to curate public Girl Connected conversations across the globe as an open forum for women to discuss successes and challenges in the entertainment and media landscape. Previous Girl Connected conversations held in London, New York, Atlanta and Toronto featured guest speakers Laura Stylez (Hot 97), Naomi Zeichner (YouTube Music), Jodi Taylor (Coveteur) and Sharifa Murdock (Liberty Fairs), among others.
