Dubois, Tim (4th May 1948-Present)

Clinical Professor of Entertainment and Media Management at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Tim went to school at Oklahoma State University, where he earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in accounting, but his real dream was to be a songwriter.

In the 1970s, he moved to Nashville, where he taught accounting at Vanderbilt while shilling his songs on the side. He has penned five #1 hits, including “The Bluest Eyes in Texas” by Restless Heart, “Love in the First Degree” by Alabama, and “She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)” by Jerry Reed.

In 1985, he switched careers from academia to artist management, and Restless Heart was the first group he represented at the newly established Nashville satellite of Fitzgerald-Hartley. It turned out to be a good move for him, because there was more than a little executive savvy to this mild-mannered accounting professor.

In 1989, Clive Davis recruited him to run Arista Nashville. During his tenure at Arista Nashville, Tim discovered Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, and Pam Tillis. He also turned it into a hit-making machine, selling some 75 million records in four years. Arista became such a force in the country music industry that Tim helped to launch Arista Austin and Arista/Latin to keep on top of the burgeoning Texas music scene.

In the meantime, he had had more songwriting success with “When I Call Your Name”, which won him and Vince Gill Song of the Year honors at the 1992 Country Music Association awards. In 1993, he became president of Arista Nashville. It is small wonder that Business Nashville considered him to be the most powerful mover and shaker in the music biz in 1996. In addition to running the show at Arista Nashville, Tim also produced several of their albums, for groups such as Blackhawk, Diamond Rio, and Exile.

At the turn of the millennium, Tim changed tacks again and went to work for the creative division of Gaylord Entertainment Company. It was a partnership that only lasted about three months. Undaunted, Tim teamed up with Tony Brown in 2002 to launch Universal South, the Nashville wing of Universal Records. This turned out to be a better fit for him, as he stayed there until 2006.

In 2008, he re-entered the hallowed halls of academia to teach several courses at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Courses he teaches include Advanced Artist Management, Business Models in Music Publishing, and Entrepreneurship in the Entertainment Industry.

In 2010 he became the Vice President and Managing Executive of the new Nashville regional office of ASCAP, Following this restructuring he was taken on by the London Broadcast Company in Dallas, Texas in 2012.

He has also served on the boards of directors of the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association and manages his joint venture Artists, Managers, Partners (AMP).

In 2016 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in accounting by Oklahoma State University.

Bobby Smith recordings
Too Many Hearts in the Fire (Tim Dubois/Jim Hurt/Wood Newton)

Sources:

Dubois, Tim (4th May 1948-Present)

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