Shelia Shipley Biddy

Shelia joins MHA with over 35 years of diverse music industry experience and a continued passion for the well-being of music and its makers. Her career began in an entry-level position at the legendary Monument Records (home to Roy Orbison, Larry Gatlin and Kris Kristofferson). Over the next eight years, she worked her way up the ranks of RCA and MCA to become Vice President of Promotion at MCA and most notably, the first woman to sit at the helm of a major record label in Music City. During her tenure with MCA, the label was named Country Label of the Year seven times by Billboard Magazine, three times by R&R Magazine, and the promotion department garnered over 137 # 1 singles under her leadership. Shelia went on to become senior vice president and general manager of Decca Records, another first for a woman in Nashville. Decca’s roster included Mark Chesnutt, Lee Ann Womack, Gary Allan, Rhett Akins, Chris Knight, and others. Shelia has continued to leave a positive mark on music as an artist manager and partner with Hallmark Direction Company and as President of Flying Island Entertainment. Shelia was voted Gavin Magazine’s Country Promotion Vice President of the Year on three occasions, and Nashville Life Magazine named her on of Nashville’s Top 25 Most Influential Women. She was presented with the Country Radio Broadcasters President’s Award recognizing her significant contribution to the marketing, production, growth and development of the Country Radio Seminar and the services that CRB provides to the country radio and music communities. In 2012, she was inducted into the SOURCE Hall of Fame, an organization she co-founded in 1991 to support female executives in the Nashville music industry. She is a 1992 Alumni and past President of Leadership Music. She has served on the Boards of Country Radio Broadcasters, Leadership Music, Academy of Country Music, NARAS, Nashville Film Commission, and the Music Industry Retirement Center. She is also a member of Brentwood Baptist Church. Shelia has been married to music publisher, Ken Biddy, for over 20 years and together they share a blended family of five children and five grandchildren. Shelia’s addition to the MHA team is like coming home. In addition to utilizing her executive experience to develop the operations of MHA, she is implementing the MHA Medicare programs and services for the family she has been a part of for almost four decades.