Joe Chialo

JOE CHIALO
Senior Vice President A&R Universal Music Central Europe & Africa
Managing Director Airforce1 Records

Joe Chialo was born in Bonn in 1970 to Tanzanian parents working for the diplomatic service. After graduating from a Catholic order boarding school close to Cologne, he completed an industrial apprenticeship and then studied history, politics, and economics in Erlangen. His career in the music industry began in 1997 at the Jive Records label in Cologne and then Amsterdam. In 2001, he accepted an offer from Universal Music and moved to Berlin to become the A&R director for its Polydor/Island label. After spending a few years as managing director of Cheyenne Records in Munich, Joe founded Airforce1.TV Music GmbH – a company specializing in managing artists – in 2009. Three years later, he set up the label Airforce1
Records as an equal joint venture with Universal Music, which allowed him to realize his vision of integrated marketing for creatively and conceptually outstanding artists. In 2016, Universal Music created a new role especially for him: Senior Vice President A&R Universal Music Central Europe & Africa. Since then, he has been responsible for identifying and acquiring African artists and for marketing them in Germany and Europe.

Joe is a jury member of Initiative Musik, which supports young musicians from Germany and musicians with migrant backgrounds. As a member of Initiative Hauptstadt Berlin, he is also involved in promoting the tolerant and creative identity of his current home town.