Overview

SAMBA was formed in 2019 by Dean James as a holding company for investments in the music and brand experiential industries. With deep experience and expertise across these sectors, especially the music industry, we live and breathe the industries we target by operating within them.

In 2025 Dean was joined by Nilufar Fowler and expanded the business into offering advisory services for other companies wanting to target the music, live event and brand experiential industries.

With more than 25 years of industry and strategic leadership experience Dean has worked with major organizations across music, live entertainment, artist management, experiential branding, and corporate strategy, engaging with groups such as Live Nation Entertainment, HMV, AEG, and Mushroom Group.

Dean has co-led two of the most successful growth businesses in the live music sector. He floated Mean Fiddler’s dotcom business in 2000 before its eventual sale to Live Nation Entertainment for £55m in 2005, and he co-founded MAMA Group, which grew to become one of the UK’s largest live music and artist management groups prior to its sale to HMV for £64m five years later.

After selling MAMA Group, he joined Chugg Entertainment - one of Australia’s largest live music and artist management groups - and left shortly before its sale to AEG via a merger with Mushroom Group.

Dean then co-founded SAMBA Group, a holding company for interests in brand experiential businesses with offices in London, Sydney, and Los Angeles.

Andrew Thomas joined Dean in 2025 to accelerate growth in the advisory business. In seventeen years at Barclays Andrew supported hundreds of business owners at pivotal moments. He has a clear understanding of how money moves, how deals are structured and what lenders and investors are looking for before committing.
Andrew is co-founder and President of the Adoreum Club - a private, invitation-only global community bringing together founders, investors and cultural leaders across London, New York and Zurich. Andrew serves as a director of SAMBA and Advisory Board Member of Tileyard Studios (Europe’s leading creative industries hub) allowing him to operate at the heart of the music and entertainment economy. He is an expert on how IP, brand and culture translates into enterprise value. He has helped multiple business across music, entertainment, experiential, finance and film raise capital and structure partnerships. Throughout his career he has mentored founders at critical inflection points through fundraising, sale navigation or strategic direction.

Nick Reed joined SAMBA as a senior advisor in 2025,Nick was named ‘one of the most 10 influential Brits in Hollywood’ by The Sunday Times, was the former head of Motion Picture at a leading talent agency, won an Oscar for a documentary called ‘The Lady in Number 6’, and co-founded Shareability one of the most successful viral content companies, that is now the lead social media strategy company for YouTube. Shareability incubated and launched last year DOWN HOME, a media company focused on middle America values with country singer superstar Tim McGraw and Skydance Media founded by David Ellison (TOP GUN, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE).

Steve Budd has recently joined SAMBA as a senior advisor. A veteran British music industry executive, artist and record producer manager based in London, he has spent four decades building internationally recognised music projects, festivals and creative networks. He is Director of Stephen Budd Music Ltd, a director of OneFest Festival, a long-standing collaborator and director of Damon Albarn’s Africa Express, and co-founder of both the NH7 Weekender Festival in India and the DMZ Peace Train Festival in Korea. Stephen is a recognised TV commentator on music industry issues, regularly appearing on British news programmes.

His charitable work includes co-producing Amnesty International and Sofar Sounds’ global Give A Home concert series and creating WarChild’s Passport Back To The Bars (now BritsWeek) — featuring artists including Ed Sheeran, James Morrison, The National, Moby, Rudimental, Gregory Porter and Hot Chip and hundreds more. He also served a three-year term as Co-Chairman of the Music Managers Forum (MMF).