Chris Stacey, founder of Rock The Ocean, is a passionate ocean man who also happens to have almost 20 years experience in the music industry.

He has a long track record of working with some of the biggest names in music, promoting artists including Blake Shelton, Shania Twain, Bob Dylan, John Mayer, Joss Stone, Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, Counting Crows, Hunter Hayes, Brett Eldredge, and hundreds of others over the years.

His career started as an intern for MCA Records in 1990 while he was still in college. Chris was passionate about music and his marketing and promotion ability quickly showed. He eventually landed his first “real job” as a regional promoter for Mercury Records in 1993. He worked his way up the food chain at Mercury Records over the next 10 years, where he eventually became the Senior Vice President of Promotion.

In 2000, his mentor Luke Lewis, Chairman of UMGN, asked Stacey to help him start a new record label—Lost Highway Records, where Stacey was named Senior Vice President of Promotion and Artist Development. The new label was a massive success, garnering 17 GRAMMY nominations in its first year!

After his success at Lost Highway, Stacey decided to try his hand at Artist Management. He joined Vector Management in 2003, where his roster included Bon Jovi, Trisha Yearwood, Kings of Leon, Trace Adkins, Kid Rock, Jonny Lang, ZZ Top, Peter Frampton, Sister Hazel, Drive-By Truckers, and more.

While at Vector, Stacey had a vision that the mobile phone was the next frontier in the music space. He subsequently founded Hurricane Interactive Promotions (HIP), a company that specialized in connecting artists to their fans via mobile phone marketing.

HIP was then acquired by Silicone Valley startup Mozes. Stacey ran the Music Division of Mozes and continued to be a leader in the music and digital marketing space. Stacey brokered marketing agreements with many of the biggest brands and bands in music such as Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Universal Music Group, EMI and Sony Music, Live Nation, and many more.

Stacey jumped back into the core of the music business as the SVP of Promotion at Warner Music Nashville. He was responsible for architecting the promotion plans that have led Blake Shelton to 11 consecutive #1 singles and a CMA Award for Entertainer of the Year. He has also launched Hunter Hayes to multi-platinum status and led record-setting campaigns for Faith Hill, Brett Eldredge, Frankie Ballard, Gloriana, and many other bands. Warner Music’s chart share has doubled under Stacey’s leadership.

Stacey left Warner Brothers in April of 2014 to join forces with music industry pioneer Scott Borchetta as the General Manager of the legendary Dot Records brand.

Stacey has taken his love of music and the ocean and parlayed them into the vision for Rock The Ocean’s Tortuga Music Festival. The festival has an overarching goal of increasing awareness about the threats facing our world’s oceans.