Azhad Syed

azhadsyed17@gmail.com | 609-356-9491 | www.linkedin.com/in/azhad-syed

Education

Northwestern University – Evanston, IL

B.S. In Communication, Major in Radio/TV/Film (June 2017)
Minor in Sound Design
Concentration in Media Arts and Game Design
GPA: 3.52/4.00
Dean's List Recipient (2015-2017)

Work Experience

88rising – Los Angeles, CA

Finance Manager – June 2019 – Present
– Forecasts Record Sales, Merch Profits & Budgets, and Tour Profits for 88rising’s various business units
– Develops and maintains 88rising’s financial BI systems to report CPM, sales decay, and other label/publishing
KPI’s
– Accounts line-level budgets for recording & marketing projects, media productions, and music videos produced in-
house
– Develops Oracle NetSuite implementation plan and best practices for financial system migration through late
2019-early 2020
– Reports financials to royalty admin firm and ensures balances are accounted and paid to artists and third parties
and comply with all contracts

Universal Music Group – Woodland Hills, CA

Royalty Analyst, May 2018 – June 2019
– Accounted royalties for Capitol/Republic Artists, focusing on: Cash Money Records (Drake, Nicki Minaj, Lil
Wayne, Tyga); Quality Control Music (Migos, Lil Baby, Lil Yachty); and additional support for full UMG roster
– Analyzed royalty data sets, metadata and label copy information to optimize accounting practices for precision
and speed
– Spearheaded departmental automation initiatives for "Unmatched" royalty backlog
– Briefed third party agreements for royalty and JV term
– Provided diligence and support on the Lil Wayne Settlement and other high-profile litigation cases

Spirit Production Music – Studio City, CA

Royalty Administration Coordinator, July 2017 to May 2018
– Managed royalty processing and administration in CounterPoint for 250+ managed publisher accounts
– Reviewed artist agreements and licenses to define rates and guide calculation analysis in accounting proofing
stages
– Compiled reports and documents for private annual audits including licenses, royalty statements and
CounterPoint exports
– Deployed Python and VBA scripting to automate statement ingestion, distribution calculations and data
reconciliation, increasing day-to-day efficiency by up to 8x prior standards
– Developed and administered in-house royalty tracking engine to analyze broadcast performance royalties of top
networks/shows
– Trained interns to process statements in CounterPoint, as well as provide advanced Excel and VBA mentorship
where applicable

Skills

– Programming: Java, Python, SQL, VBA

– Office Software: Oracle NetSuite, Expensify, Bill.com MS Office (Advanced Excel), FileMaker, CounterPoint
– Foreign languages: Mandarin Chinese