The Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) announces the recent additions to its Board of Directors following the latest elections. The newly appointed Songwriter and Composer Directors, Faye O’Rourke and Tom Dunne, along with External Director Malin Jonsson Skogman, bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the organisation.
Faye O’Rourke
Faye O’Rourke is a singer, songwriter, composer and producer with over fifteen years experience in the Irish and international music scenes as front-woman of Little Green Cards, Soda Blonde and as a solo performer.
With Little Green Cars, Faye produced the gold selling Absolute Zero in 2013 and Ephemera in 2016 and completed multiple US tour and world tours, including performances at Coachella, Lollapalooza, Radio City, New York and on ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’, as well as being longlisted for BBC Sound of the Year 2013. In 2014, Faye won a ‘Irish Tatler Woman of the Year Award’ for Music and U Magazine’s ‘30 Under 30 Award’ for Arts & Entertainment in 2017.
Soda Blonde have just recently been nominated for both the Choice Music Prize ‘Album of the Year’ 2021 for their critically acclaimed self-produced debut album Small Talk and for ‘Song of the Year’ for the song ‘Small Talk’. They are also about to embark on a sold-out national tour having completed a number of sell-out UK dates last year, including London and Manchester.
Faye is a passionate advocate of women’s physical and mental health as well as artist’s rights within the Irish music industry. She has curated and organised numerous events aimed at raising awareness for issues such as menopause (Konenki/Menopause Unmasked, 2019- for the Irish
Association for Cancer Research) and abortion rights (Imp Hour, 2017- for the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre ) as well as acting as an ambassador for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Faye has also hosted talks for First Music Contact on topics including ‘The Value of Art & Artists within the
Contemporary Irish Music Scene’ and written extensively for Hot Press Magazine on variety of subjects including politics and culture.
As a solo performer, Faye has performed with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and is a member of Irish Women in Harmony. Faye also works as a composer for TV and film, including the score for Mark O’Halloran’s award-winning adaptation of James Joyce’s An Encounter last year.
Tom Dunne
Tom is most renowned for his time as the lead singer and co-songwriter in the Irish band Something Happens. They signed with Virgin Records in 1987 and achieved significant success, boasting two number one Irish albums, sold-out Irish tours, numerous foreign tours (including 14 in the US), and a string of hit singles.
Around 1996, he transitioned into commercial radio and hosted “Pet Sounds” on TodayFM. This show aimed to showcase Irish music alongside top-notch international acts. His “Tom Dunne’s 30 Best Irish Hits” album series gained immense popularity during this period.
Following that, he spent five years hosting Talk Radio on Newstalk before returning to his music show, which he currently produces and presents from Monday to Thursday, airing from 10 PM to midnight.
Tom continues to perform live shows with Something Happens, and he has expanded his musical horizons by touring with Fiachna O’Braonain from Hot House Flowers. Additionally, he offers a one-man show featuring a mix of old and new stories and songs. Tom has also ventured into presenting music TV shows and has a prolific career as a music writer.
Malin Jonsson Skogman, Studio Manager, PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions
Malin is the studio manager at PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions. PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions is founded by Brendan Greene, an Irish video game developer best known for the hugely successful game PUBG: Battleground. Malin has over 25 years of experience with leadership roles such as CEO/CIO/CTO where she has been responsible for various digital transformations in both for-profit and non-profit organizations operating within gaming, music, transportation, life-science and government. She is skilled in leading international teams through change, using new technology as an enabler for growth and transformation. Malin is known for keeping complex stakeholders’ interests in mind whilst gaining visible results. At PLAYERUNKNOWN Productions, the studio, under Malin’s leadership, is exploring new technology using AI/ML, with the aim of building a platform to experience large-scale digital experiences (the Metaverse). Further, Malin is also the former CEO of Network of Music Partners (NMP), the joint venture by PRS for Music and Nordic CMOs (Koda, Tono, Teosto) formed in 2011 with the mission of gaining economy of scale through the collaboration of royalty management across segments such as mechanical offline processing as well as digital (online) handling. During her 8 years at the helm of NMP, Malin and her team managed to significantly expand the managed portfolio to not only handle MCPS’ and the Nordics CMOs’ portfolio, but also that of the Dutch CMO, Buma/Strema’s. Finally, Malin has served as Advisor on the IMRO IT-committee reporting to the IMRO board, since June 2022.
Together, Faye O’Rourke, Tom Dunne, and Malin Jonsson Skogman bring a dynamic blend of creativity, industry knowledge, and technological innovation to the IMRO Board of Directors.
IMRO is governed by a Board of Directors comprising 15 non-executive directors. Seven of the directors are writer members and five are publisher members, all of whom are directly elected by the membership. In addition, there are three external directors on the Board. External Directors are not members of IMRO and they are appointed by the Board on the basis of the particular expertise and skills they can bring to the workings of the Board.
The Board delegates to committees specific responsibilities. Directors are appointed to committees by the Board and decisions of committees are subject to ratification by the Board. Ad hoc committees are established by the Board from time to time to deal with specific matters that arise. The following committees have been established by the Board.
