Prescription Songs/Amigo Records General Manager Ashlee Gibbs has been promoted, adding Director of Operations to her title, overseeing administration of the company’s offices in Los Angeles and Nashville. The announcement was made by company founder Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald.
Ashlee Gibbs originally joined the music publishing company and record label in 2017 where her husband Clint Gibbs, one of Prescription’s original employees when the company started in 2010 as Chief Engineer and Technical Advisor, Dr. Luke’s “right hand,” worked.
Gibbs is part of an impressive female hierarchy that includes L.A.-based Head of A&R West Coast Rhea Pastricha and Head of A&R Nashville Katie Mitzell Fagan (another two original hirings) along with SVP Creative Synch Sara Walker, VP Creative Synch Megan Wood-Petersen and newly hired SVP of Business Affairs Diana Sanders as well as Bryan Trenis, Head of Finance.
Says Katie Mitzell Fagan, “Ashlee is the glue that holds us all together. The systems she has established to keep our company working smarter, not harder, at all times, have expedited our growth as a whole. This title is well deserved and it’s hard to recall how we ever functioned before her.”
“I am a music lover,” says Ashlee, a self-declared punk-rock fan who counts Orange County band the Descendents as her all-time favorite. “But my role here is to support the creative team any way I can.”
Born in Pennsauken, New Jersey, Ashlee spent her teenage years in Las Vegas, before moving to south Florida, where she worked and took classes at several community colleges, segueing into a decade-long career as Senior Operations Specialist for financial services companies in both Vegas and Los Angeles, where she moved in 2013 and was then approached by Dr. Luke to manage the Los Angeles office and head up its HR department.
“I thought it was a good time to take a chance and try something different, a new direction,” she says. “So, I quit my job and joined Prescription. It was quite a transition from being prim and proper in slacks and a button-down shirt, having to clock in and out every day, to wearing my Descendents T-shirt to work.
Being from a corporate background, I brought that sense of organization and protocols. I put together an employee handbook and tried to create an environment, although more relaxed, where the staff could lean on me.”
From the time Ashlee joined in 2017, the company has more than doubled in size from 12 to 28 employees, a growth she has had her share in accomplishing, leading to a promotion to GM.
“I think Luke trusts us to oversee the day-to-day operations of the company, but he’s always available if we need his guidance and approval. With our core group of executives, we can act as a team. It’s a great working environment. There’s mutual respect, and a great deal of freedom.
“I want to make people comfortable and enjoy coming to work each day, whether they’re at home or in the office. I’m here to do whatever I can to support the creative team. We all strive to make this company the best it can be all the time. And bring some fun to it at the same time.”
Although Ashlee’s job is more administrative then creative, the longtime music fan – who grew up listening to her father’s classic-rock records, enjoys being privy to artist development.
“Hearing a demo through the walls and seeing it recorded by an artist and become a hit is still a thrill,” she says. “It’s something I never thought I’d be a part of, so I’m grateful for this opportunity.
Prescription Songs’ success stories over the past few years include songwriters like Doja Cat (“Say So”), Kim Petras (“Unholy” with Sam Smith), Emily Warren (Dua Lipa’s “Don’t Start Now”), Lauren LaRue (Arizona Zervas’ “Roxanne”), KbeaZy (“That’s What I Want” for Lil Nas X) and Fridayy, who contributed to DJ Khaled’s five-time GRAMMY-nominated Song of the Year “God Did” with Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and John Legend, performing it on the most recent Awards show.
