DIO CANCER FUND - Key Persons
Adam Parsons is an English Native, living for the past 20 years in Los Angeles. With almost 40 years of experience in the music industry , he has been a Tour / Production Manager, Tour Account, Booking Agent & Concert Promoter for some of the largest acts in the Entertainment Industry. In 2003 Adam became co-founder of Siren Artist Management, reinventing and overseeing the careers of some of the best Classic Rock Acts touring today.
Big Scott was the Production Manager for Dio and Heaven and Hell tours. He was also a very close friend. He takes care of all the technical issues and crew on tours. He is the lead bike for the Ride for Ronnie and has Wendy Dio as his passenger.
Danny Zelisko has been promoting concerts since 1974. He founded the legendary Evening Star Productions in 1976, and now heads up Danny Zelisko Presents, helping keep the Southwest a viable stop on most contemporary tours while producing thousands of shows all over the country.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
You might know Diana DeVille by her voice. She has been an on-air personality at Los Angeles' metal mainstay KNAC.com and Simi Valley's 99.1 The Ranch (KWSV), where she currents tracks the midday on-air time slot (10am-2pm). Diana recently relocated to Nashville, where she also does a weekend show at Mix 92.9, the #1 station in Music City. She's a Southern girl, born in Corpus Christi, Texas and raised in Monroe, Louisiana before moving west to pursue her career in radio. While in Los Angeles, she also dabbled in filmmaking and acting (she is wild about Shakespeare) and generally loves entertaining people. Her heart and her Southern roots have led her back to Nashville. where she's loving her new hometown.
She is also a licensed real estate broker in California and Tennessee and loves helping people achieve their dream home goals, and recently added her mortgage license for both states to those real estate stripes.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Primary Care Physician
Dr. Sandy Kapoor is a primary care physician and has owned and operated his practice in Studio City California, Kapoor Medical, for the past sixteen years. He is specialized in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Travel Medicine for over twenty years. He counts generations of families among his patients and, in fact, took care of Ronnie during his arduous battle with cancer. Along with Wendy Dio and the board of directors, he founded the Ronnie Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund and is steadfastly committed to discovering ways to prevent cancer before it starts, and to pursuing the "root cause" of other illnesses with his holistic, functional, personalized approach to aging and longevity. Dr. Kapoor also incorporates the latest scientific advancements in nutrition, genetics and environmental influences in caring for the health of his patients and has recently completed specialized training in Integrative Medicine at the Institute of Functional Medicine.
John R. Doran is proud to be a founding Board member of RJDSUAS. He currently is a Principal at London & C. LLP, providing business management and other consulting services to numerous entertainment figures including Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Bush, The Cult, The Psychedelic Furs, The Crystal Method, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Extreme, Creed, Godsmack, Morrissey, King Crimson, Heaven and Hell, Static-x, Dashboard Confessional, Avenged Sevenfold, Bad Religion, Jurassic 5, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Pulse Music Group, Bonnie McKee, Chuck D, Michelle Branch, Fuel, Stiff Little Fingers, Coldplay, Raul Midon, Jonathan Butler, Mayer Hawthorne, The Monkees, Howard Jones and Powerman 5000.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Mary Kusnier left the Chicago suburbs with a degree in Marketing from Eastern Illinois University and soon found herself in the wild world of the Los Angeles music scene. She began her music career at Eclipse Entertainment with the manager of several artists, including the Sex Pistols on their 1996 Never Mind the Bullocks Reunion World Tour. While at Eclipse, Mary also worked on the music supervision and licensing of numerous soundtracks. She then jumped into the promoter/production world and spent quite a few years at Nederlander Concerts in the booking/contracts department. After which, she had the pleasure of working with Wendy Dio and joining the SUAS Cancer Fund Board, where she supervised production of the This is Your Life Ronnie James Dio tribute album and continues to coordinate the annual RIDE FOR RONNIE motorcycle ride/concert and BOWL FOR RONNIE celebrity bowling event. Mary is currently the Manager of Contract Administration at Goldenvoice/AEG Concerts, where she enjoys crossing out rider requests in the artist agreements.
Nick Jackson started his storied career in Birmingham, England as co-founder of the legendary production rental house, Light and Sound Design, affectionately known in the production circles as "LSD". LSD grew from the late '70s to the early '90s into the premier concert touring company with a focus on lighting systems and lighting innovations. LSD was purchased by Productions Resource Group (PRG), the worlds leading provider of entertainment and event technology solutions, in 1998, and Nick remained in charge of Concert Touring and special projects. He then joined CHAOS Visual Productions in January 2009 as Chief Operations Officer and partner and recently has returned to the PRG fold upon their acquisition of CHAOS.
Paul Newman was born and raised in England, where he started his career as an audio technician. He was one of the founders of the legendary U.K. audio, lighting and video production company, T.A.S.C.O. and moved to Los Angeles in 1978 to oversee its expansion into the US market. Paul currently serves as a Senior Account executive with the worldís largest audio company, Clair Global, winner of the 2015 Tourlink Top Dog Award for Sound Company.
Job Titles:
- Vice President and Co - Founder of Upstaging, Inc
Robin Shaw is the Vice President and Co-founder of Upstaging, Inc., which provides stage lighting and trucking services to the touring industry. She was one of the first women in the business of touring production and has been an innovator in the field for over 30 years. Robin was one of the founders of Los Angeles Women in Music, serves on the board of the Parnelli Awards, and is a member of the Women Presidentsí Organization.
Sabrina Ment is an entertainment lawyer with over fifteen years of experience advocating for and negotiating on behalf of a veritable whoís who of todayís biggest musicians and artists. In her role as an artistsí representative, she has handled agreements related to all areas of music, merchandising and fashion, book publishing, motion picture and television. She has worked on numerous #1 albums and singles, as well as New York Times Bestsellers and a critically acclaimed music documentary. Sabrina has since shifted gears, going in-house at Walt Disney Television as a Vice President in the music department. In addition to her day job, Sabrina has lectured at various conferences and seminars, including the National Association of Record Industry Professionals, Musician's Institute, North American Entertainment, Sports and Intellectual Property Law Conference, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, and the U.S. Department of State's Overseas Advisory Security Council. In addition to sitting on the SUAS board, she is also on the board of the California Copyright Conference. Sabrina received her B.A. from UCLA and her J.D. from UCLA School of Law.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Member of the Board
At 21, Sean moved to Los Angeles to hit the fabled Sunset Strip. Within two weeks, he became the bassist for Quiet Riot which had the title of being first heavy metal band to hit the billboard charts. Over the past 30 years, Sean has played with bands Dokken, Don Felder, Montrose, Bobby Kimball, Willie Chambers, House of Lords, Edgar Winter, Great White, Ellis Hall/TOP, David Garfield, Lynch Mob. He's been in bands on various tour packages, including: KISS, The Scorpions, Cinderella, James Brown, and Ozzy Osbourne.
Sean McNabb is a board member of the Dio Cancer Fund and active with it's Ride for Ronnie motorcycle/music benefit. He has been the Grand Marshall on a number of charity rides(Children's Hospital "Children's Ride)-WA, Veterans "King Run"- WI, Mesothelioma/Cancer "Great Escape Ride"-CA). He participates in Christmas toy runs, the Love Ride, and numerous other charitable rides.
Sharon Weisz is the owner of Los Angeles-based W3 Public Relations. For more than 40 years, she has represented a wide variety of entertainment clients, including recording and touring artists and entertainment-based companies. During that time, she spearheaded the recording and release of the Hear ‘N Aid fund-raising record album and video documentary, helping to establish a non-profit corporation that raised more than $1 million for famine relief efforts. She proudly serves on the Board of Directors of the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund.
Job Titles:
- Founding Director of the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up
- Owner of the STRENGTH CODE
Sheila Melody is the Owner of THE STRENGTH CODE, a boutique specialized strength-training studio located in Toluca Lake, California. She is also a Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and the Creator and Host of the podcast, Sound Mind & Body.
Prior to her career in health and fitness, Sheila worked in the music and entertainment industries starting at William Morris Agency where she worked on the first DIO ìHoly Diverî tour. From there she continued working with the DIO team at Niji Management through the 80ís and 90ís. In addition she has worked as a Project Manager in the themed entertainment industry with Contour Entertainment, and in digital film and post -production with Technicolor.
Sheila is a proud Founding Director of the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund and is dedicated to the mission of promoting education, early detection and prevention of gastric cancers.
In 1982, Tim Murch helped co-found Light & Sound Design (LSD) in the United States, which won many ìLighting Company of the Yearî Performance and Pollstar awards prior to its merger in 1998 with the Production Resource Group (PRG). He continues to work with PRG as Vice President of Business Development which utilizes the 40+ years of live event experience bringing new opportunities and helping educate the next generation of entertainment production professionals starting their careers at PRG. Tim is renowned as a pain in the ass and because of this has been the Chairman of the RJD SUAS for the past two years.
Wendy Dio - Founder, President
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Member of the Board of Directors
- President
- President and Owner of Niji Management, Inc
Wendy Dio is the President and Owner of Niji Management, Inc., an exclusive personal management company which she established in 1985. She has received awards from both ìPerformanceî and ìPollstarî magazines for stage set design and concert video production, along with several Gold and Platinum album awards and executive producer credits. Wendy is one of the original founders of Los Angeles Women in Music and the motivating force behind the ìHear N Aidî charity project. From 1995-2010, she was Chairman of the Board for Children of the Night, an organization dedicated to helping runaway children and teens. Wendy is the President and Co-Founder of the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund, and is also actively involved in promoting awareness and raising money for various animal charities, including the Brittany Foundation.