Laverne Thomas

Special Projects Lead, Warner Music South Africa

Laverne Thomas is a creative executive with a track record for ensuring strategic growth for the individuals and organizations she has worked with in the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa. She traversed a career change from law to artist management, becoming a personal and business manager to Lagos based rapper @Ladipoe whilst managing UK based photographer @tobishinobi. Relocating to Nigeria from the UK in 2019, She served as the General Manager at Talent Exchange and Infrastructure, Africa's first financing marketplace for the creative industry. She spearheaded the company's office opening whilst developing the startups script screening platform for secure submission and assessment of 200+ scripts and established a COVID-19 Scriptwriting Fund to fund scriptwriters during the lockdown. From September 2020 to October 2021, Laverne Thomas worked as a Change Management Strategist at Warner Music Africa. Initially engaged to head a talent incubator program for musicians, she went on to develop transformational operational procedures for its Nigerian label partners. She systematized artist development and roll-out with an artist-centric approach focused on enhancing creative output and increased integration points with strategic partners.