Jake Leighton-Pope returns to management after leaving CAA

"With a heavy heart", the agent has departed Creative Artists Agency's London office after a decade to set up his own management company

By Jon Chapple on 10 May 2018

Jake Leighton-Pope

After a decade at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), UK booking agent Jake Leighton-Pope has left to launch a new artist management company.

Leighton-Pope started his career in management, working with artists including Paul Oakenfold and Richard Ashchroft at Marc Marot’s Terra Firma Artist Management, before moving into merch with Universal’s merchandise division, Bravado.

He joined CAA in London, where his roster included Will Young, Little Dragon, Dodie and Cherry Glazerr, in 2008.

“I started in management 20 years ago, and it’s time for me to go back,” Leighton-Pope tells IQ. “I loved being an agent – I did it for ten years and had a great time – but I’m in my 40s now, and it was time for a change.”

“I started in management 20 years ago, and it’s time for me to go back”

He adds that leaving CAA – and his former colleagues, including UK office co-heads Emma Banks and Mike Greek and head of music Rob Light – is bittersweet, and was an amicable split. “It was as good [an experience] as someone leaving a company after ten years could be,” he explains.

“I love them and they love me. I’m leaving with a heavy heart.”

While it’s “very early days” for his new, as-yet unnamed company, Leighton-Pope says the new business is “about bringing all my years of experience together” to offer a full-service management offering to his new roster. His first artist is up-and-coming London-based electronic act Anna Straker, who he is co-managing with James Barnes of the Forty Four management.

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