Our Team Mikael Apelgard,President As a former officer within the Swedish Army, with a Major's grade, Mikael has great experience from leading and training people. He left his military career for studies within marketing and communication, and after his degree, he has spent his last fifteen years within marketing. As a Marketing Director, he worked several years for Gallagher Group, a major British tobacco company, and later for the airlines Fly Me and Fly Nordic. He left the airlines business to become a Marketing and Sales Director of the major Swedish Wine distributer, Fondberg & Co. Mikael's knowledge and competence within the marketing field is an important asset to Nordic Talent Group. Michael Karlsson, MD/ Executive Manager Michael was a Senior PR-Consultant with one of the major PR-firms in Stockholm. His 13 years of experience from the PR business, working with multi-national companies and worldwide brands, is an important essence of Nordic Talent's success. In the role as an artist manager, he also advantages from his background as a personal protection specialist by the Swedish Security Police, working with a wast array of celebrities, politicians and industrial leaders. During his eight years in that business, he served with celebrities such as US former Minister of foreign affairs, Dr Henry A Kissinger, former US first lady Mrs. Nancy Reagan, etc. Marie Karlsson, Assistant Artist Manager Marie handles all practical details for the Artists, such as travel and hotel bookings, contracts and riders etc. Olle Hellström, Label manager With most of his life in the music business, Olle Hellström is a very experienced producer and label manager. He has been running his own record label, Pyjama Records, for many years, and is now the Label Manager for Nordic Talent Records. With an extential network within Swedish radio and TV stations, he also handles all radio promotion for our artists. Nils von Matern, Head of booking dept. With more than 20 years in television, Nils has a profound knowledge from the business. He was one of the founders of the TV-show Bingolotto in 1991, and has been working as an artist controler for that show for 17 years. As such, he has dealt with over one thousand artists over the years, and has developed a tremendous worldwide network within the music business. The TV- show soon became one of the most important in Sweden, and has remained so until now. Lars Holmgren, Head of Media Relations Lars has dedicated most of his professional career to PR and marketing. With more than 20 years in the business, Lars is one of the most experienced media consultants in the country. He started his career in the international news agency INS (International News Service) where he later on became the Managing Director. He started his own business in the early 90:s and built up one of the most important agencies in Sweden. Over the years, Lars worked with multi-national brands on a global basis. He is a frequent lecturer in PR and marketing at the Stockholm University and has written books on the subject Eva Karlsson, Financial Manager Eva handles the company finances, invoicing, book keeping etc. Mark Bland JR, Board member, US Director Mark Bland JR is the director of Management, USA. Mark has been in the American music business for the last twelve years. As the PR Director for a division of Warner Music, he gained great experience from promoting artistes and he has handled accounts for a wide range of artistes. He debuted in 1997 as a host for a TV show called Video Jukebox/Mega Music. In 2002 , Mark was hired to become the new face of a St. Louis based music video show called Audaphobia, where he still is the present host. In March of 2006, Mark became a judge on the St. Louis television show called "Junior Stars". It's a singing competition judged in the same manor as American Idol. Jeff Franzel, US partner Jeff Franzel is one of the American top songwriters with a history of hits with artists like Tylor Dane, Josh Groban, Placido Domingo and many others. He is also one of the absolute top jazz musicians in the world. For a period he was the pianist of Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis JR. Jeff has an extraordinary network in the US, being one of the top writers with Universal.