Debbie Linn will retire as executive director of Leadership Music

Debbie Linn has announced she is retiring as executive director of Leadership Music, the Nashville organisation she has run for 15 years. MusicRow reported the news on September 1.

Linn will stay in the job through 2027, giving the organisation time to manage a leadership transition rather than a handover. A search committee will begin identifying her successor in the coming months, with details of the process and timeline to follow.

She joined Leadership Music in April 2012. Across her tenure she strengthened the organisation's financial position, widened alumni involvement, deepened industry partnerships and guided more than a dozen Leadership Music classes through the programme.

"Serving as Executive Director of Leadership Music has been the honor of my professional life," Linn said, calling the organisation her passion and her purpose rather than a job.

Diane Pearson, the newly elected board president, said Linn had led the organisation with passion, integrity and heart, and that her commitment had strengthened it in countless ways. Pearson added that the board considers the group well positioned for the future because of that work.

Leadership Music sits alongside the other Nashville trade bodies whose staffing and governance moves get logged here, among them the CMA Women's Leadership Academy class, the CCMA board directors for 2026 and 2027 and MCA's own streaming and audience development changes.