Kahlil Najar, Mobile Manager, INgrooves Fontana
Currently the Mobile Manager for INgrooves Fontana, Kahlil Najar started his career in music the old fashioned way by working at an independent retail record store. While there he dove head first into the music industry by obtaining an internship at Universal Music, a part time job at KARA in San Jose, working at KMEL as a street team member, volunteering at Classified Records all the while attending Cal State Hayward where he received his degree in Business Management with an emphasis on Marketing Management. After working the front lines of retail, Kahlil landed a job at KOCH Records (now E1 Entertainment) as a Field Marketing Representative which eventually transformed into a physical sales position. He serviced all the major accounts as well as some key independent retailers and was one of only two representatives to service the entire Bay Area. After he saw the decline of the physical market, Kahlil changed career paths and moved into an Artist Relations representative position at music merchandise heavyweights, Cinder Block. Kahlil’s responsibilities included signing bands to new merchandise contracts and placing orders for artists that performed worldwide. He was the account lead for a range of bands like the Silversun Pickups, H20, 30 Seconds To Mars and Death By Stereo. Seeing that music was still adapting to different ways to sell music, Kahlil joined the team over at Tribal Brands, the music agency of choice for Verizon Wireless. Starting with clearing artwork for print advertising, Kahlil eventually transferred into the Music Team and helped facilitate the programming of the Verizon VCast Music handset as well as the VCASTMUSIC with Rhapsody online application. He was also an integral part of the team which helped Verizon Wireless decide on who Verizon should team with for tour sponsorships, licensing/synch opportunities, online promotions and in-store activations. After a downturn in the economy, Kahlil planted himself at skyrockit where he was the lead programmer for Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile. He helped launch Boost Mobile’s Music related Twitter contests as well as securing artists for Virgin Mobiles First Dibs program. Starting in late April 2012, Kahlil joined INgrooves Fontana as the Mobile Manager in charge of securing mobile promotions for all of INgrooves Fontana’s labels.