about US
I‘m a father and a husband first. I live, eat, breathe, and even dream about negotiation. I’ve spent my life studying people involved in commercial transactions. In college I studied finance and criminal psychology before entering the entertainment world. In the music business I learned about deception from some of the most notorious liars, cheats, thieves, and psychopaths. And those were just my colleagues….
After graduating from Wharton School University of Pennsylvania I was immediately hired by RCA Records as part of their management training program. I spent 13 years in the entertainment industry, working for various record labels negotiating deals with high profile artists, strategic accounts, and 3rd party partners. In 4 short years, I navigated the shark infested waters of ‘the biz’ to become the youngest executive at Capitol Records. In 2003 I graduated from the Anderson School at UCLA with a Masters in Business Administration. In 2006 I left the entertainment world to start a negotiation consulting firm with my partners from the UK. The US business took off and I cashed out in 2009. I sold my interest in the firm to start my solo project The Edge Negotiation Group, the only company in the world combining cutting edge behavioral psychology and contemporary negotiation strategy.
First and foremost I’m interested in helping people maximise their potential. Having managed commercial teams in a variety of industries, a stint as a visiting university lecturer and captaining a number of sports teams, I have taken great pleasure in aiding my colleagues’ personal development, which in turn has driven my own development.
I have done and been involved in countless deals during my career but only came to discover negotiation training in the past 10 years. When I look back at some of the deals, I can only imagine just how much money was left on the table by myself and my colleagues. Having trained many highly talented and experienced commercial managers, many have told me that they wish they’d done the training earlier in their careers. Indeed, I’ve even had one person tell me that they learned more from my negotiation training course than they did in their entire MBA.
I’m delighted to be joining forces with Andy Boughton, Founder of The Edge Negotiation Group. Andy and I have worked at the same company (twice) and it seemed an obvious step to partner and bring the Edge Negotiation model to Europe. I look forward to working with delegates in the coming years and helping them become better negotiators and enhancing the value of their deals.
SUGE KNIGHT vs. bill gagnon
In this video Bill Gagnon shares a story about a meeting with Suge Knight and his intimidation tactics.