K. Michael Sikkas

Music executive and manager born Feb 1, 1952, died Feb 23, 2010. Sikkas was a longtime A&R exec at Arista, Mercury and Dick James Music Publishing and at the time of his death, he had developed a love of woodworking and refinishing antique furniture. He started out as a "professional manager" at DJM, then began his A&R career at Arista finding songs for Clive Davis, before moving to PolyGram. He became a music supervisor and after a stint at MP3.com, worked at both Gold Circle and Dark Paradise Records before becoming an artist manager at Viastar Artist Management, where Icon guitarist John Aquilino was CEO, in 2004.