Joseph P. Salvo

As Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Sesame Workshop, Joseph P. Salvo is responsible for the nonprofit organization’s legal work, business affairs and government relations. Salvo previously served as General Counsel of HiT Entertainment, the children’s entertainment company where he led the legal and business affairs team, in NYC and London, responsible for brands including Barney, Thomas the Tank, Bob the Builder and Angelina Ballerina. He also served as Vice President & Associate General Counsel at Mattel, Inc., (which acquired HiT in February 2012) with shared responsibility for the Mattel legal and business affairs group. He oversaw business and legal matters for all forms of audio and audiovisual production and licensing, including television, film, audio, digital services and home video, publishing and consumer products. Prior to becoming General Counsel to HiT, Salvo spent 13 years working for a combination of Sony Music, Arista Records and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, where he was involved in a wide variety of contract, licensing and intellectual property issues and personally handled contract negotiations and drafting for such artists as Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Yo Yo Ma and John Mayer. Salvo started his career as a litigator at Weil, Gotshal & Manges in NY where he specialized in copyright and IP litigation. He served as their Counsel where he guided many of the largest internet music service providers on international publishing and sound recording rights issues, including Apple, MySpace, Yahoo, AOL, Pandora, MediaNet and Sony. Salvo coordinated the trial team for the UK Copyright Tribunal preceding that set the first-of-its-kind UK publishing rates for internet distribution of music on behalf of a number of digital services. Salvo served as President of the Copyright Society of the USA, the preeminent national copyright bar association from June 2012-14. He is an adjunct professor at St John’s University School of Law. Salvo is a frequent lecturer at law schools, bar associations and colleges on copyright, entertainment law and entertainment law issues.