Who We Are
Charm Factory was founded by Leslie Gilotti and Sarah Thompson in 2006, when they decided to merge Leslie’s thriving lineup of breakthrough independent artists with Sarah’s solid roster of high-profile artists and legends.
Leslie Gilotti (Owner/Director) has over 10 years experience in the music industry. Prior to setting up as a freelance digital marketing and PR consultant in 2005, she was co-founder and director of Ampunited, a division of PlayLouder, where she worked on campaigns for the White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Sonic Youth, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Badly Drawn Boy and the Eden Sessions festival, to name a few. Prior to this she worked in marketing at Mute Records and served several years in TV production at MTV Europe. She DJs regularly, runs a monthly club night, and plays guitar in an all-girl rock band.
Sarah Thompson (Owner/Director) has worked as a freelancer in the music industry for over 15 years, in just about every role imaginable across publishing, management, promotion and record labels. She set up web design company DC Creative in 1994 and quickly amassed an impressive client base that included the major labels and several indie labels - all in a time when the industry had yet to realise the profound effect the Internet would have on the music business. After selling DC Creative in 1997, Sarah set up as a digital marketing and PR consultant specialising in music.
Lorraine Long (Senior Campaign Manager) kick started her music career in 2005 with a short work experience stint at Protest Recordings. It was here that she met the man who would give her that all important first job in the music industry - Dan Walsh at Incubator. Starting off with merely a passion for music and sheer determination she spent two and a half years developing a broad range of PR skills and working on a very diverse campaigns; from working with mainstream releases like the Rolling Stones, Eddy Grant, Rod Stewart; major labels including Sony RCA and UMTV; to independent acts and niche labels such as Epitaph Records (Set Your Goals, Farewell, Sing It Loud) and Kartel (Fat Freddy's Drop). She's worked on everything from online specific campaigns to 360° campaigns that meant dealing with national, regional, student and online PR concurrently. Here experience has also covered music festivals, events, awards ceremonies and magazine PR including; O2 Wireless Festival, Wychwood Music Festival, Metal Hammer Golden Gods, Classic Rock Roll of Honour, Golden Joystick Awards Total Film Magazine and Total Film Red Carpet Preview Event. She adds several new strings to Charmfactory's bow.
Daniel Thompson (Campaign Manager/Sales) grew up in the music industry and has always known that his passion lay in music, particularly dance music. Although he is young, he has asserted himself in Charm Factory, and has proved his savvy in many sides of the business. Daniel’s domain is the sales and dance departments. Outside of work he is a constant on the London DJ scene and the festival circuit. No doubt that it will not stop here – you’ll hear plenty more from Daniel soon.
Mike Kruger (Campaign Manager – Dance and Electronic Music Specialist) has spent his recent and most important years within the music industry, putting in three years as a member of the touring live band for a dance music DJ/production solo project. Mike is also the founding member of London-based culture and lifestyle youth portal londonkicks.com. Mike’s love is firmly rooted in all areas of dance and electronic music and he uses this passion to great effect for Charm Factory’s clients.
Jade Suckley joined Charm Factory from Swatch, looking to pursue a long-standing passion for music with her first role in the industry. Jade has an in depth knowledge of the indie and leftfield scenes and a strong interest in online music media. With her personable demeanour, strong organisational skills and hunger to learn about the workings of the industry, Jade is a valuable addition to the Charm Factory team.
Ali Neville's interest in music PR started during 4 months spent working in Ibiza, where he was involved in events marketing and promotion. Upon his return to London he started working at Charm Factory and is a valued and hard-working member of the CF team. Ali loves all kinds of dance music including house, electro and drum & bass, but he also loves all kinds of music from the Rolling Stones to Bob Marley & The Wailers to The White Stripes.
Leyla Leonard started pursuing a career in the music industry as soon as she left university and managed to secure work experience at the Mute Records recording studios. From this she landed entry level jobs at Mute Records and Cooking Vinyl before securing her first job in music marketing at Eagle Rock. She now channels her passion for music of all genres into the work she does at Charmfactory, and is constantly leaning and growing within the industry.
William Jem Milnes is the group motion graphics artist. Since graduating from Southampton University with a degree in Television and Video Production (2:1) he has excelled in his passion, working with artists such as the Scissor Sisters, Kele and doing projects for ESPN, Shell, Sky and Disney. He specialises in After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.
Charm Factory was founded by Leslie Gilotti and Sarah Thompson in 2006, when they decided to merge Leslie’s thriving lineup of breakthrough independent artists with Sarah’s solid roster of high-profile artists and legends.
Leslie Gilotti (Owner/Director) has over 10 years experience in the music industry. Prior to setting up as a freelance digital marketing and PR consultant in 2005, she was co-founder and director of Ampunited, a division of PlayLouder, where she worked on campaigns for the White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Sonic Youth, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Badly Drawn Boy and the Eden Sessions festival, to name a few. Prior to this she worked in marketing at Mute Records and served several years in TV production at MTV Europe. She DJs regularly, runs a monthly club night, and plays guitar in an all-girl rock band.
Sarah Thompson (Owner/Director) has worked as a freelancer in the music industry for over 15 years, in just about every role imaginable across publishing, management, promotion and record labels. She set up web design company DC Creative in 1994 and quickly amassed an impressive client base that included the major labels and several indie labels - all in a time when the industry had yet to realise the profound effect the Internet would have on the music business. After selling DC Creative in 1997, Sarah set up as a digital marketing and PR consultant specialising in music.
Lorraine Long (Senior Campaign Manager) kick started her music career in 2005 with a short work experience stint at Protest Recordings. It was here that she met the man who would give her that all important first job in the music industry - Dan Walsh at Incubator. Starting off with merely a passion for music and sheer determination she spent two and a half years developing a broad range of PR skills and working on a very diverse campaigns; from working with mainstream releases like the Rolling Stones, Eddy Grant, Rod Stewart; major labels including Sony RCA and UMTV; to independent acts and niche labels such as Epitaph Records (Set Your Goals, Farewell, Sing It Loud) and Kartel (Fat Freddy's Drop). She's worked on everything from online specific campaigns to 360° campaigns that meant dealing with national, regional, student and online PR concurrently. Here experience has also covered music festivals, events, awards ceremonies and magazine PR including; O2 Wireless Festival, Wychwood Music Festival, Metal Hammer Golden Gods, Classic Rock Roll of Honour, Golden Joystick Awards Total Film Magazine and Total Film Red Carpet Preview Event. She adds several new strings to Charmfactory's bow.
Daniel Thompson (Campaign Manager/Sales) grew up in the music industry and has always known that his passion lay in music, particularly dance music. Although he is young, he has asserted himself in Charm Factory, and has proved his savvy in many sides of the business. Daniel’s domain is the sales and dance departments. Outside of work he is a constant on the London DJ scene and the festival circuit. No doubt that it will not stop here – you’ll hear plenty more from Daniel soon.
Mike Kruger (Campaign Manager – Dance and Electronic Music Specialist) has spent his recent and most important years within the music industry, putting in three years as a member of the touring live band for a dance music DJ/production solo project. Mike is also the founding member of London-based culture and lifestyle youth portal londonkicks.com. Mike’s love is firmly rooted in all areas of dance and electronic music and he uses this passion to great effect for Charm Factory’s clients.
Jade Suckley joined Charm Factory from Swatch, looking to pursue a long-standing passion for music with her first role in the industry. Jade has an in depth knowledge of the indie and leftfield scenes and a strong interest in online music media. With her personable demeanour, strong organisational skills and hunger to learn about the workings of the industry, Jade is a valuable addition to the Charm Factory team.
Ali Neville's interest in music PR started during 4 months spent working in Ibiza, where he was involved in events marketing and promotion. Upon his return to London he started working at Charm Factory and is a valued and hard-working member of the CF team. Ali loves all kinds of dance music including house, electro and drum & bass, but he also loves all kinds of music from the Rolling Stones to Bob Marley & The Wailers to The White Stripes.
Leyla Leonard started pursuing a career in the music industry as soon as she left university and managed to secure work experience at the Mute Records recording studios. From this she landed entry level jobs at Mute Records and Cooking Vinyl before securing her first job in music marketing at Eagle Rock. She now channels her passion for music of all genres into the work she does at Charmfactory, and is constantly leaning and growing within the industry.
William Jem Milnes is the group motion graphics artist. Since graduating from Southampton University with a degree in Television and Video Production (2:1) he has excelled in his passion, working with artists such as the Scissor Sisters, Kele and doing projects for ESPN, Shell, Sky and Disney. He specialises in After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.