transmitTALKS 2011 speaker:
// Eric Baptiste - Chief Executive Officer, SOCAN
In 2010, Eric Baptiste completed a 12-year stint as director general of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) in Paris. Bringing together 225 authors’ rights collectives in 118 countries and representing 2.5 million creators and publishers from all creative repertoires (music, audiovisual, visual arts, photography, literature and drama), CISAC is an international organization promoting creators’ rights worldwide.
Beyond his role within CISAC, Baptiste has been deeply involved in broadcast media, cultural policy and new talent in music. He serves as general secretary of the board of Francophonie diffusion, and chairman of Radio NEO, a non-commercial FM radio network exclusively devoted to new musical talent. Baptiste is also the current chairman of ISAN-IA, the ISO-appointed agency managing the audiovisual works identification standard ISAN.
Baptiste previously served as general manager of French public international radio RFI, and CEO of French commercial FM radio station 95.2 Paris. He has also headed several trade associations and inter-industry groups, such as Musiques France Plus, the trade association Vive la Radio, and the working group on relations between radio and the music sector, spearheading a report on digital convergence.
A graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (IEP) and the Ecole nationale d’administration (ENA), Eric Baptiste received the French medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2006.