Doug Howard, an alum of Belmont, received his MBA from the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt University and his JD from the George Washington University School of Law in Washington, D.C. At Belmont, Doug served as the student studio manager for the campus recording studio, he was elected president of the Belmont Chapter of Alpha Chi Honor Society, he received the Wall Street Journal--Outstanding Business Student Award and was recognized in Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities.
Howard returned to Belmont as the Dean of the Curb College in January 2015 after working on Nashville’s Music Row for over 30 years. He served for 13 years as SR VP A&R of Disney owned Lyric Street Records, 5 years as SR VP/GM for Disney Music Publishing-Nashville, and 5 years as VP/GM of PolyGram Music Publishing-Nashville. Doug started his career at the Welk Music Group serving as both Creative Director and Studio Manager.
Doug worked with many Grammy, ASCAP, BMI, CMA, and ACM award winning songwriter/artists and members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Country Music Hall of Fame including Ricky Skaggs, Don Williams, Toby Keith, Billy Ray Cyrus, Aaron Tippin, Rascal Flatts, SheDaisy, Love & Theft, Filmore, Bob McDill, Dickey Lee, Gordon Kennedy, Kostas, Larry Cordle, Carl Jackson, Jim Rushing, Angelo, and Johnny Russell, among many others.
Doug has served on the Board of Governor's for the Nashville Chapter of the Recording Academy/GRAMMYs, was elected Nashville chapter president and vice-president, and served as a Recording Academy National Trustee. In addition, he served on the Grammy Foundation Committee, the Grammy Hall of Fame Committee, the Producer & Engineer Wing Advisory Council, and the Recording Academy Mentoring Program. Doug is currently a board member of the Steven Kern Shaw/Gallery of Iconic Guitars and Fretted Instrument Collection and is the owner of Vandermont Music.
Additional past service includes the board of the Academy of Country Music, the Advisory Council for the Center for Popular Music at MTSU, the Nashville Entertainment Association, the board of directors for the Nashville Vanderbilt Club, and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce Music Industry Advisory Group. He is an alumnus of Leadership Music and the Center for Creative Leadership. Howard was recognized as one of Nashville Business Journal's "Top Forty Under Forty," and he was the recipient of Belmont's School of Music Business "Alumnus of the year Award" (2002). Prior to returning to Belmont, Doug served as the chair for the Curb College Advisory board and on the William G. Hall Scholarship Committee. He is a member of the CMA, Leadership Music, the Recording Academy, and MEIEA.