Phil Nelson is an artist manager and music business educator with a career spanning over three decades. Since beginning his management work in 1988, he has represented a diverse roster of artists, including Grammy-winner Matt Hales (Aqualung), platinum-selling Duke Special, and Mercury-nominated Sweet Billy Pilgrim. His earlier clients included The Longpigs and The Levellers, the latter of whom helped pioneer the direct-to-fan model now standard in the industry. After headlining Glastonbury, The Levellers worked with Phil to launch their own 15,000-capacity festival, Beautiful Days, which still runs today. Beyond management, Phil has been a key figure in the wider music industry: he served as Vice Chair of the Music Managers’ Forum (1997–2007), co-founded The Great Escape showcase festival in Brighton, and created the Breakers Chart for Music Week.

Alongside his management career, Phil is a committed music business educator, currently teaching at BIMM. From 2016 to 2018, he was BIMM’s Music Industry Ambassador, developing hands-on programs for students including the Appetite For Disruption student conference and the student-run label Pool Valley Recordings and facilitating real-world projects for dissertation students. Since 2017, he has collaborated with CMU on mapping music careers and education, research that led to the creation of the Pathways Into Music Foundation, which he now leads. This not-for-profit organization supports music educators and talent development programs, offering CPD for educators, mentoring for early-career artists, an annual industry-education conference, and ongoing research into music career pathways.