Bio

Craig oversees business affairs for the private entertainment and media division of SME, Live Nation Entertainment Group. His expertise includes business strategy, legal entitlements and licensing, and media policy.  As senior vice president, Craig manages business and legal affairs for event bookings and productions world-wide; Craig also advises SME’s President, Corey Shapoff, in matters of business strategy and development.

Prior to joining SME Live Nation, Craig consulted in the entertainment industry for iconic live event venues, and for recorded music and visual media content producers and distributors such as: Miramax Films, OM Records, Fox Films, Boutique Media Inc., Danny B Productions, Spundae Records, The End Up, A&R Select Studios, LA Supper Club, and The Walt Disney Company.  Keys previously headed up legal and business affairs for Mixology Agency. Prior to joining Mixology, he served as Associate Senior Executive Vice President, and as a lecturer and law clinic director at University of Southern California. Keys also previously served as Director of Government Relations for the law firm of Westin Benshoof et. al. LLP.

He earned bachelor’s degrees in mass communications and social science from the University of California at Berkeley, where he is a Fellow of the Order of the Golden Bear.  Craig also holds joint Juris Doctorate and Master’s degrees from University of California, Hastings Law School and Columbia University. His law and policy research papers have been published in academic journals by UCLA, the University of California at Berkeley, and Columbia University of New York.

Craig holds other distinctive honors including having been a Dean’s Lecturer in Law for the USC Gould School of Law, a law professor at the New College of Law; a Dean’s Graduate Research Fellow at the UCLA School of Public Administration, and a Thurgood Marshall Law Fellow at the San Francisco Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights where he oversaw a business law clinic serving community artists and entrepreneurs. A life-long arts and music enthusiast; Craig helped to found and served for 7 years as the Music Director for Praxis Project dance productions, and continues to serve on non-profit boards of organization dedicated to enhancing community access to the music and the arts.

While at USC he designed and taught entrepreneurial classes in entertainment and technology in partnership with the USC Marshall School of Business. He currently serves as a board member of the 24th Street Theater in Los Angeles; and on the Board of Directors for the Pullum Center for Performing Arts. His prior board seats include having served on the Board of Trustees for Antioch University; and as an Import/Export Commissioner for the United States Commerce Department.