Impact NextGen: Tom Skoglund

When his best-selling memoir is written, and optioned by Hulu, Tom Skoglund’s full-circle moment will transpire at Coachella 2022. There, backstage, during Harry Styles’ headlining set, our protagonist will smile wryly, shake his head with slight bemusement and contemplate his journey to the music business’ highest echelons.

“I looked back to when I was literally at Coachella four-years earlier, fresh off the boat from New York with no job, no plan and no responsibilities,” Skoglund says about the moment. “I had saved some money [from working] at an accounting firm and was like, ‘I’m going to live off this in L.A and try to figure out what I’m going to do next.’”

Skoglund had just left a corporate gig as an “analyst doing forensic accounting consulting for hedge funds.” Having what he termed a “quarter-life crisis,” he headed West for something more fulfilling in entertainment. At Coachella, a friend offered to send around his resume.

Maybe it was growing-up in New Richmond, Wis., (pop: 10,075), his early love for the Spice Girls (especially Ginger), or weekly trips to Target after which he’d “go to the basement and “dance to the best the ’90s had to offer.” Or maybe it was listing a “Beyoncé dance class” on his resume. Whatever it was, Skoglund’s confluence of smarts, experience, passion and skills led to an exciting new path.

“I started as Jeffrey Azoff’s assistant,” says Skoglund, who has since grown to become an integral part of the Full Stop team. He says Azoff and Tommy Bruce are mentors and from them he’s learned the mantra “the artist always comes first always and forever,” to “have a point of view;” and “the importance of a strong team and a strong network.”

Skoglund cites his work with Styles and Ava Max as two Full Stop highlights and says his generation’s biggest advantage is its global perspective: “Through the powers of social media, TikTok and social networking, we’re now living in a global community which our generation has a much better grasp of.”