Announcing Our New CEO

We’re excited to announce that Adam Joolia will join Youth Music as our new Chief Executive Officer.

Adam joins us from Brighton-based charity AudioActive, where he has spent nearly 20 years leading the organisation and shaping it into a nationally recognised force for social change through music.

Adam will lead Youth Music as we develop our new five-year strategy, with a focus on strengthening income generation, championing youth voice, advancing equitable grant-making, and deepening partnerships across government, philanthropy, the music industries and grassroots communities.

I’m honoured to be joining Youth Music and leading the organisation into its next chapter. At a time when young people and the wider sector are facing deep structural challenges, I bring a clear understanding of those pressures and first-hand experience of how transformative the right support can be.

But I also believe this is a moment of real possibility, a chance to build on Youth Music’s extraordinary legacy, to back the talent, ambition and creativity of young people, and to help shape a future in which more individuals, organisations and communities can thrive through music.

Because when we invest in young people’s potential, we do more than change individual lives; we strengthen our culture, our communities and our collective future.

Adam Joolia

Under Adam’s leadership, AudioActive has grown from a single‑post community project into a £1.3m Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation, employing around 50 staff and delivering major talent development and social impact programmes. Since 2020, he has overseen a period of rapid expansion, securing significant public investment, building high‑value philanthropic partnerships and founding initiatives that have influenced the wider sector.

In 2024, Adam’s contribution was recognised nationally when he received the National Lottery Gamechanger Award, one of only seven cultural leaders across the UK to be honoured.

AudioActive has also supported the journeys of a number of successful artists, including Rizzle Kicks, Celeste, SpectraSoul, and Frankie Stew & Harvey Gunn.

Youth Music's co-chairs Guvna B and Charlotte Edgeworth posing at the Youth Music Awards 2025

We are thrilled to welcome Adam as Youth Music’s new Chief Executive. His track record of bold, inclusive and strategic leadership, combined with deep experience across music and youth sectors, makes him the ideal person to guide Youth Music’s next phase of growth and impact.

Adam brings a genuine belief in the power of young people’s creativity to change lives. And we know that he will take great care of the fantastic culture we have grown at Youth Music, and inspire our fantastic staff team.

Charlotte Edgeworth and Isaac Borquaye

Youth Music Co‑Chairs

Adam will officially start his role in September.

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The Youth Music Staff posing for a photo at the Youth Music Awards. Youth Music branding behind them, on a red carpet.

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