AES New York 2019 Presenter or Author
Heather D. Rafter
Primary Affiliation: RafterMarsh US - San Francisco, CA, USA
Heather Dembert Rafter has been providing legal and business development services to the audio, music technology and digital media industries for over twenty-five years. As principal counsel at RafterMarsh US, she leads the RM team in providing sophisticated corporate and IP advice (US practice) and entertainment law services (UK) to content creators, hardware and software developers, and event producers, among others.
Heather served as Director of Legal affairs and later General Counsel for Digidesign, the audio division of Avid Technology and the creator of the award-winning Pro Tools software. During her time at Digidesign, she was instrumental in the company’s acquisition of M-Audio and Sibelius Software. She also was counsel for Euphonix during the time of its acquisition by Avid, as well as external counsel for Imagine Research in its acquisition by iZotope, another audio industry flagship company. She is currently a Senior Strategic Advisor to MediaBridge Capital Advisors, one of the leading investment banking and strategic advisory firms serving the media technology industry.
She began her legal career as a litigation attorney at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, focusing on intellectual property and commercial matters. Heather has served in a variety of leadership roles in the American Bar Association, including Chair of the ABA Section of Science & Technology Law. She also serves by ABA presidential appointment as a member of the ABA’s Fund for Justice and Education. She is on the board of SoundGirls.org; serves on the advisory board of WiMN, the Women’s International Music Network; and on the advisory council for the Department of Music at Princeton University.
She is a graduate of Princeton University (A.B., Woodrow School of Public & International Affairs, magna cum laude) and Columbia University School of Law (J.D., Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar).
Session List
Oct 17:
SE05: Show Me the Money: Funding Your Audio Dream (Moderator)