Sally Williams, president of Nashville music and business strategy for Live Nation Entertainment, has spent more than thirty years in music and entertainment. She began promoting concerts while attending the University of Missouri–Columbia, then worked for a booking agency and multiple concert promotion companies before joining Gaylord Entertainment in 1999. Williams managed and produced concerts and other events at Gaylord venues until 2007, then—following a brief stint at the Country Music Association—became general manager of the Ryman Auditorium in 2008. She was named the Opry Entertainment Group’s senior vice president of programming and artist relations, as well as the first woman general manager of the Grand Ole Opry, in 2017. Williams took her current role at Live Nation in 2019, the same year she began managing the band Old Crow Medicine Show in partnership with Red Light Management.
Williams is an Academy of Country Music award winner (including the 2015 Don Romeo Talent Buyer of the Year and 2010 Promoter of the Year), is the T. J. Martell Foundation’s 2019 Frances Preston Outstanding Music Industry Achievement Award recipient, and was named one of ten trendsetters in Nashville Business Journal’s 2023 Power 100 list, among other honors. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Country Music Association, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Nashville Downtown Partnership, Nashville Public Radio, and other boards.
The Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum honors music industry leaders who continue the legacy of trailblazer Louise Scruggs, a formidable businesswoman who set new professional standards in artist management. Ford Theater. Free and open to the public. Program ticket required.
