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Intercept Music Celebrates Indie Label Successes and Announces New Hire

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Intercept Music, a company that specializes in music marketing and distribution, has witnessed unheralded success with independent labels leveraging the Intercept technology system to expand their streams and profits. Showcasing success stories like Shawn Mickelonis, COO at Afimi Music and Viral New Wave label head and artist, AYO SK3TCH, founder and chairman, Ralph Tashjian and CEO, Tod Turner, recently announced new hire Jesse Flores as their Vice President of Artist and Label Partnerships to further fuel their indie label stronghold.

Jesse Flores’ industry experience spans decades with strategic vision and passion for artist empowerment. His mission to impact the evolving landscape of music distribution and development stems from expertise honed as the former Senior Director of Label and Business Development at Virgin Music Group, Vice President of Business Development at Lyric Financial, leadership roles at EMI/Capitol Music Group, spearheading artist acquisitions and generating over $20 million, and tenures at Universal Music Group and PolyGram Group Distribution.

“I am thrilled to join Intercept Music on our mission to revolutionize the independent music landscape. Throughout my career I’ve been passionate about working with the indie artist and label community. I look forward to leveraging my expertise to drive impactful partnerships for years to come,” expresses Jesse Flores, Vice President of Artist and Label Partnerships for Intercept Music.

Indie artist AYO SK3TCH first approached Intercept Music in 2024 with a vision that has evolved into his own label, Viral New Wave, bringing over 200 artists to his label and generating nearly 100 million streams in his first year. With signature acts that include YungCeoDaPlug, 199X, Inas X and himself, SK3TCH feels Intercept Music technology has securely positioned Viral New Wave for industry expansion in alignment with the likes of Alamo Records, Quality Control Music (QC) and Roc Nation.

“Viral New Wave has greatly benefitted from the technology and support that Intercept Music provides. Running my own label as an artist puts me in a unique position. I get to work with Ralph and Tod under both banners and experience firsthand how I’m providing my own artists with reliable resources for boosting their music and careers. And it’s not just the tech savvy behind Intercept, but also their staffing that’s reliable and easy to reach at every stage of the game,” expresses AYO SK3TCH, artist and owner at Viral New Wave.

Afimi Music’s Shawn Mickelonis, Chief Operations Officer and CEO, Kalief Grant, who have experience with major labels like Universal Music Group and Def Jam Records, have been with Intercept since 2022. Both readily acknowledge that Intercept Music’s masterful technology has enabled tailored marketing services unique to the needs of each of their artists. With five legacy acts under their banner, Canibus, Kali Ranks, Stephanie Adler, Afm Jynx and G-Mack, the tangible proof is in over a billion streams garnered.

“We believe in the development of our artists, guiding them to embrace ethics, humility, loyalty, and education within the music industry. Our goal is to ensure they can capitalize on their artistry and are given the tools and opportunities to create great, profitable, and enduring music. Intercept’s technology and management tools not only provide us with the same high-quality marketing and distribution services as the major labels, but they mirror our beliefs. Our partnership with Intercept has allowed us to stay independent while gaining direct distribution through them and major players. It’s been a productive balance, offering more reach without losing our autonomy,” cites Shawn Mickelonis, COO for Afimi Music.

About Intercept Music Inc.

Intercept Music empowers independent artists and labels with innovative entertainment technology. The company provides cutting-edge tools and services for premium distribution, dynamic social media, targeted marketing, impactful merchandising, and customizable promotional services. Intercept’s exclusive and innovative software grants artists access to a wealth of AI-powered features, enabling them to use predictive marketing to optimize their promotional efforts and directly connect with their target audiences. Designed specifically for the booming independent music sector, Intercept Music helps artists grow their audiences and generate revenue.

Discover more at interceptmusic.com and visit Intercept Music on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Media Contact: Makeda Smith / Jazzmyne Public Relations / 392695@email4pr.com / 661-212-7655

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SOURCE Intercept Music

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RSAC Unveils Keynote Speaker Slate for RSAC™ 2025 Conference

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — RSAC, the company behind the world’s largest and most influential cybersecurity conference, today announced its current lineup of keynote speakers for its upcoming RSAC™ 2025 Conference, taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from April 28May 1. Notable speakers include Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, UK AI Security Institute CTO Jade Leung, and Special Assistant to the President and NSC Senior Director for Cyber Alexei Bulazel, as well as dozens of prominent cybersecurity experts, innovators, and guest speakers.

RSAC™ Conference is where the cybersecurity community convenes to help create a safer society.

RSAC™ Conference is where the cybersecurity community convenes and contributes to critical conversations to help create a safer society. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn new skills and brush up on the latest trends while experiencing unique perspectives and inspiring real-life stories. Similar to previous years, the Conference will support two keynote stages, with the West Stage featuring sponsor keynotes, panels, and esteemed guest speakers in Moscone West, and the newly located Yerba Buena Center of the Arts (YBCA) Keynotes, presenting highly coveted sessions from industry experts. Keynote stages open on Monday, April 28, and run through Thursday, May 1.

Two-time NBA Half of Famer, Entrepreneur, and Philanthropist Earvin “Magic” Johnson along with Academy Award-Winning Filmmaker Ron Howard and his daughter, actor and director Bryce Dallas Howard, are slated to bring their life experiences to the West Stage. For the closing celebration, DJ Irie and Jazz Mafia will help to entertain attendees and set the stage for Award-Winning Actor, Singer & Comedian Jamie Foxx to close out the week, in conversation with Hugh Thompson, RSAC’s Executive Chairman.

“Many voices, One community is the theme for this year’s Conference and it couldn’t be more fitting based on our amazing lineup of keynote speakers from all walks of life,” said Linda Gray Martin, Senior Vice President, RSAC ™ Conference. “We’re excited to bring our attendees a new keynote venue, as we expand our campus into the beautiful Yerba Buena Center of the Arts that will allow for more content and programming throughout the week.”

To accommodate those who would like to view and engage with content online, RSAC™ Conference offers an On Demand Pass, which provides individuals access to West Stage Keynote live streaming plus session content from the traditional tracks within four hours of a session running live at the Conference. For more information, please review the passes and rates page.

Current keynote speakers at RSAC™ 2025 Conference include:

Dmitri Alperovitch, Executive Chairman, Silverado Policy AcceleratorDr. Edward Amoroso, Founder & CEO and Research Professor, TAG and NYUCharles Blauner, President, Cyber Aegis LLCAlexei Bulazel, Special Assistant to the President and NSC Senior Director for CyberCryptographers’ Panel: Whitfield Diffie, Honorary Fellow, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge; Ed Felten, Co-founder and Chief Scientist, Offchain Labs; Raluca Ada Popa, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley; Adi Shamir, Borman Professor of Computer Science, The Weizmann Institute, Israel; Vinod Vaikuntanathan, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Tal Rabin, Senior Principal Applied Scientist and Professor, AWS, UPenn (Moderator)Kirsten Davies, Founder & 3x Fortune 500 CISO, Institute for CyberJen Easterly, Former Director, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)John Fokker, Head of Threat Intelligence, TrellixJamie Foxx, Award-Winning Actor, Singer & ComedianTom Gillis, SVP & GM, Security, Data Center, Internet & Cloud Infrastructure Group, CiscoKen Gonzalez, Managing Director, NightDragonMike Horn, SVP & GM, Security Products, Splunk, a Cisco CompanyBryce Dallas Howard, Actor and DirectorRon Howard, Academy Award-Winning FilmmakerChris Inglis, Former US National Cyber Director, MITRE TrusteeNadir Izrael, CTO & Co-Founder, ArmisVasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft SecurityEarvin “Magic” Johnson, 2x NBA Hall of Famer, Entrepreneur, and PhilanthropistRob Joyce, Venture Partner, DataTribeSandra Joyce, VP, Google Threat Intelligence, Google CloudArik Kleinstein, Managing Director, Glilot Capital PartnersChris Krebs, Chief Intelligence and Public Policy Officer, SentinelOneGeorge Kurtz, CEO & Founder, CrowdStrikeRobert M. Lee, CEO & Founder, Dragos, Inc.Jade Leung, CTO, UK AI Security InstituteKevin Mandia, Founder & General Partner, Ballistic VenturesCraig Newmark, Founder & CSR, Craig Newmark Philanthropies (Craigslist Founder)Jeetu Patel, EVP & Chief Product Officer, CiscoNicole Perlroth, Cybersecurity Author, Investor & Advisor, Silver Buckshot VenturesMatt Radolec, Vice President, Incident Response & Cloud Operations, VaronisDaniel Rohrer, VP, Software Product Security, Architecture and Research, NVIDIAJim Routh, Chief Trust Officer, SaviyntVivian Schiller, Vice President & Executive Director, Aspen Digital, Aspen InstituteMichael S. Schmidt, Reporter, New York Times and Co-Creator & Executive Producer, Zero DayBruce Schneier, Security Technologist, Researcher, and Lecturer, Inrupt, Inc.Michael Sentonas, President, CrowdStrikeRam Shankar Siva Kumar, Data Cowboy, Microsoft; HarvardJon Swartz, Senior Reporter, Techstrong GroupThe SANS Institute Panel: Heather Barnhart, DFIR Curriculum Lead, SANS Institute and Senior Director, Cellebrite; Tim Conway, ICS Curriculum Lead, SANS Institute; Rob T. Lee, Chief of Research & Head of Faculty, SANS Institute; Joshua Wright, Faculty Fellow and Senior Technical Director, SANS Institute and Counter Hack Innovations; and Ed Skoudis, President, SANS Technology Institute College (Moderator)Dr. Hugh Thompson, Executive Chairman & RSAC Conference Program Committee Chair, RSACMark Thurmond, Chief Operating Officer & Co-CEO, TenableKiersten Todt, President, WondrosChenxi Wang, General Partner, Rain CapitalTomer Weingarten, CEO, Co-Founder, SentinelOne

For more information about the keynote program and to stay up to date with what’s happening at RSAC™ 2025 Conference, please visit our website at https://www.rsaconference.com/usa.

RSAC™ 2025 Conference will take place April 28 – May 1, 2025, in San Francisco at the Moscone Center.

About RSAC  
As the cybersecurity industry’s convening authority, RSAC brings together diverse minds to exchange perspectives, knowledge, and ideas. RSAC provides the world’s leading platform for uniting and advancing the cybersecurity community to create a safer society. RSAC is at the cutting edge of cybersecurity innovation and education. The company’s flagship event, RSAC™ Conference, is the largest and most influential global gathering in cybersecurity. RSAC gives cybersecurity professionals a platform to connect and grow. To learn more, visit www.OneRSAC.com.

About RSAC™ Conference 
RSAC™ Conference is the largest and most influential Conference in the cybersecurity industry. Today, under the expanded RSAC brand, the Conference is central to a larger mission that unites the cybersecurity community to create a safer society. To learn more, visit www.rsaconference.com/usa.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rsac-unveils-keynote-speaker-slate-for-rsac-2025-conference-302420427.html

SOURCE RSAC

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Debbie Epstein Henry, renowned legal industry innovator, named Executive Strategic Advisor by Markups.ai, leading provider of AI-driven contract revisions

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Legal industry thought leader known for driving change and efficiencies, Henry brings expertise and deep relationships to spur growth at AI contract revisions company

SAN FRANCISCO, April 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Markups.ai, the first company to create a custom-built agent that delivers customizable contract revisions to clients’ inboxes in minutes, announced today that it has appointed Debbie Epstein Henry as Executive Strategic Advisor.

To download a headshot of Debbie Epstein Henry, please click here.

Henry, a lawyer turned speaker, author, and communication coach, with expertise in careers, women, and workplace dynamics, is a well-known legal industry innovator. Henry wrote two bestselling books, Law & Reorder (author) and Finding Bliss (co-author), and conceived of and co-ran the Best Law Firms for Women, an annual, national survey selecting the top 50 law firms for women. Henry built a national network of over 10,000 lawyers and in 2011, co-founded Bliss Lawyers, a company that hired lawyers to work on temporary engagements for clients across the US. In 2020, Bliss Lawyers was acquired by its largest competitor, Axiom, the global leader in high-caliber, on-demand legal talent.

“Since Bliss Lawyers was acquired, I’ve been looking to advise a company that could truly save clients both time and money, and Markups.ai is that company,” said Henry. “I’m excited to work with Markups.ai to bring the AI revolution to the legal profession and be the first-ever provider to automate contract revisions in minutes.”

“We are delighted to welcome Debbie to our team to help accelerate our mission to automate contract revisions without requiring clients to learn any new software,” said Brian Powers, Co-Founder and CEO of Markups.ai (and Co-Founder and former CEO of TemperPack, a sustainable materials company with more than 400 employees). “Debbie will bring the deep experience, relationships, and industry knowledge to complement our bench of seasoned engineers and lawyers who have developed our unique product,” added Sam Shelley, Co-Founder and CPO of Markups.ai (and Co-Founder and former CPO of Vault Health, the leading healthcare testing technology company recently acquired by public company Sterling Check (now First Advantage)).

About Markups.ai

Markups.ai created the first AI agent – Agent Marko – that delivers infinitely customizable contract revisions to clients’ inboxes in minutes. With Agent Marko, there’s no need for clients to learn or install new software. Clients just email their contracts to a custom Markups.ai inbox and their contract revisions on routine contracts including MSAs, NDAs, DPAs, MTAs, BAAs, CTAs, and more, are performed 100% autonomously in minutes. Clients simply share their priorities and precedent data in a complimentary call with Markups.ai lawyers, who build custom playbooks with more than 3,000 instructions. The Markups.ai lawyers then guide Agent Marko to produce precise and tailored revisions, all while keeping clients’ data 100% secure. For more information, please visit Markups.ai. To download Markups.ai’s logo, please click here.

Media Contact:

Media Relations, info@markups.ai

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/debbie-epstein-henry-renowned-legal-industry-innovator-named-executive-strategic-advisor-by-markupsai-leading-provider-of-ai-driven-contract-revisions-302420433.html

SOURCE Markups.ai Inc.

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RepTrak reveals the 2025 Global RepTrak® 100 Most Reputable Companies

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BOSTON, April 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The RepTrak™ Company, the world’s leading reputation data and insights company, released its annual Global RepTrak (GRT) 100 report. Utilizing its advanced reputation monitoring software, RepTrak gathered data from 211,000 survey responses across 14 major economies to rank the world’s 100 most reputable companies. They share that ranking alongside a full analysis of global corporate reputation trends and corresponding public sentiment in the 2025 report.

For the second consecutive year, the global Reputation Score has increased. Building on 2024’s recovery, it rose by ▲0.7 points to land at a Strong 74.5. This rise comes despite the many global elections, unending economic unease, and geopolitical conflicts that defined this past year. While crises have often triggered sharp fluctuations in corporate reputation, 2025’s GRT data shows a kind of reputational resilience to external disruptions.

“This year’s findings highlight a global turning point in how companies build and deploy a reputation strategy,” says RepTrak CEO Mark Sonders. “In an era defined by constant disruption, the Top 100 companies have distinguished themselves not by avoiding challenges, but by responding with clarity, consistency, and cultural relevance. They’ve earned their reputations by showing up — not just in words, but in action — and stakeholders are taking notice.”

RepTrak’s report explores how people thought, felt, and acted towards companies over the past year. Findings include: notable increases in Conduct and Citizenship efforts, all 7 Drivers of Reputation reaching Strong Scores, stakeholders’ rising willingness to invest, and a record-high Brand Score driven by authentic, culturally aligned corporate communications.

To read the full 2025 Global RepTrak 100 report, visit: www.reptrak.com/globalreptrak

About The RepTrak Company

The RepTrak Company is the world’s premier provider of reputation data and insights, helping businesses harness reputation intelligence to secure competitive advantage. RepTrak’s predictive insights enable subscribers to safeguard business value, optimize ROI, and amplify their positive societal impact. Combining advanced metrics with dedicated reputation advisors, RepTrak delivers actionable analyses that align business goals with stakeholder sentiment across global markets and diverse industries.

Established in 2004, The RepTrak Company owns the world’s largest reputation benchmarking database, gathering over 1 million company ratings per year used by CEOs, boards, and executives in more than 60 countries worldwide. For more information, please visit www.reptrak.com.

 

SOURCE RepTrak

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