There is no single incident that fully captures this person’s Radical Ownership, as they demonstrate it weekly, if not daily. They possess strong expertise in Power Query and regularly assist me and others in extracting critical information from the AS400.

One day they may provide data needed to resolve a backorder issue; the next, they may support a completely different team by supplying the information they need to make informed decisions.

They are highly resourceful and persistently work through challenges until the data is accurate and the problem is resolved. When an issue is presented to them, whether by myself or someone else, they take it on, own it fully, and see it through to completion.

This behavior is not an isolated occurrence. In my experience, this individual consistently demonstrates Radical

Ownership in nearly everything they do.

Throughout the year, Andrei maintained a very high standard in delivering and closing projects. However, we are especially proud that a substantial body of work was transferred to us in connection with the new Hal Leonard reporting requirements.

The calculations in BackBeat and Navision were subject to thorough review and analysis. During this work, we discovered that there was no source code or documented logic, payments had been recorded incorrectly, there were issues with data access, a significant amount of manual work had been involved before our participation, and the previous project owners lacked sufficient expertise.

As a result, we gained a complete understanding of the process logic, reduced manual work by approximately 75%, and significantly improved efficiency and transparency for auditors. We now have clear data analysis, structured data uploads, and online royalty calculations in place. Our analytics team is able to provide expert insight into Navision-based calculations. In addition, automated report generation and distribution have been implemented.

All of this was made possible thanks to Andrei — his cross-team collaboration and his clear task-setting and leadership within the team.

This person have been proactive in helping me transition to SMP, setting up additional calls after work, and addressing non-obvious issues.

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I’d like to highlight the Musicroom migration project and, in particular, the outstanding work this person has done leading it.

The process is not fully complete yet, but the most complex phase is already behind us. What we’ve accomplished so far significantly de-risks a large part of the HL business and stabilizes a critical revenue stream.

This migration is not just an operational task — It supports our broader goal of consolidating platforms, simplifying architecture, and strengthening our long-term ecosystem foundation.

This person took full ownership of the process end-to-end. They structured the roadmap, aligned stakeholders, managed dependencies, and maintained execution discipline despite the complexity involved.

In July, we had a pretty sever outage on MuseHub that lasted 2 days over the weekend, where a cascade of events took place starting from an expired root receipt, to a broken windows build.

This person during stepped up to the plate, reached out to ex colleagues to understand how to fix the problem, implemented the fixes over the weekend, and was on discord and reddit responding to customers that were inquiring about the outage at the same time.

This person has stepped up in a huge way to lead the US IT resources over the last quarter. With the high amount of turnover on the IT teams, they have been brought into multiple projects with my group.

They have never attempted to shy away from the tasks, and even if they can't help with the issue, they seek a solution. They stay in constant contact with my team and have listened to the problems we need their help resolving.

When tensions have been high, they have been able to deescalate and own the solution that needs to happen. They've brought confidence to a team in transition, and I am grateful for their support and leadership.

This Nominee was nominated 3 times by 3 colleagues

Ownership 1

Creating Top Talent Pipeline Vacancies
We introduced Top Talent Pipeline vacancies to help fill high-demand roles faster and strengthen open communication with the market. In 2025, this approach resulted in two successful offers with a short SLA and a strong pipeline for Frontend roles. The process enables us to:

• Stay continuously engaged with the market
• Build and maintain a strong talent pool
• Accelerate candidate processing for urgent or high-priority roles

Overall, the Top Talent Pipeline initiative improves hiring speed, increases market visibility, and ensures we are proactively connected with top talent.

Ownership 2

This person is great in owning recruitment and hiring team expectations. When they work on request, they provide timely statuses, have back up candidates for backup candidates. When you say you have a new possible job opening, they even have a candidate in mind. I don't remember the cases when they didn't meet SLAs of the team.

Ownership 3

We regularly face non-standard hiring cases. These may involve locations where we have never hired before, where we are not familiar with the local labor laws or tax system. We have no prior experience drafting contracts there and lack knowledge of all the legal aspects that must be taken into account.

Nevertheless, the hire must be completed, with all risks and details considered. The contract must be thoroughly reviewed and understood as much as possible. Ultimately, only one person can be fully responsible for the hiring process.

What did they own?

• Responsibility for handling complex hiring cases in unfamiliar locations with minimal input and support.
• Independently identifying and mitigating risks.
• Preparing documentation and employment terms.
• Taking full responsibility for decision-making.
• Proactively proposing solutions that best serve the business.

How did they act?

• Worked independently with full ownership of every action taken.
• Clearly highlighted potential risks for the company.
• Communicated necessary information in a timely manner to enable informed decision-making.

Why did it matter?

• Thanks to the employee’s full ownership, we successfully onboarded many people into the company, helping the business effectively plan and execute its objectives.
• All necessary preparations were completed to ensure smooth hiring and integration.

I believe this colleague deserves a prize for radical ownership because they consistently demonstrates exceptional accountability and leadership. They took on a particularly difficult strategic partnership relationship and fully embraced the challenge with an “I own this” mindset.

From the outset, they accepted complete responsibility for the outcome. They proactively anticipated risks, focused on transparency to highlight problems early rather than explaining them later, and always came prepared with practical solutions. When negotiations were difficult, they did not make excuses, and instead, focused on positive outcomes for both us and the client, and most importantly, rebuilt trust.

Because of their proactive approach and determination to see the project through, we are now in a far stronger position, with a more stable and productive partnership as a direct result of their leadership.

This person is the true embodiment of radical ownership, and I believe that if you asked anyone that they collaborate or serve on a regular basis they will agree. It is difficult to isolate a specific instance of "radical ownership" as this is truly the way that they approach their work each and every day, especially as they encounter a variety of tasks and issues regularly. Does a solution exist? If not - they will figure something out. Is the current solution not as efficient as it should be? They will work to make it better. Can the work be automated and shared with others on the team? They will work to make it happen.

As part of their day-to-day workload for Hal Leonard digital content publishing, they interface with Muse coworkers around the globe. Their work has allowed them to be exposed to any number of challenges, often on a daily basis.

What would be an "end of conversation" for many end up being an opportunity for problem solving, improvement and automation for this nominee. They have developed unique solutions for countless hurdles, and is continually looking for new and better solutions that help them to complete tasks quicker, empower others and guide the development for better internal systems for all of us. They have taken ownership of many aspects of OPUS, Hal Leonard's internal and ever-evolving proprietary content management.

This ownership helps to unite content teams through suggestions and actions for improving and aligning tasks among varied stake holder, ultimately improving our internal mechanisms from the inside out. Their tenacity and thoughtful approach to their work make them a pleasure to work with, and an incredibly valued member of the HL/Muse collective team.

I want to thank this person for the strong ownership they have of our Culture and Communication initiatives. The consistency with which they run things and their relentless pursuit of making sure everyone is heard and has a voice are refreshing and truly valued. KEEP IT UP!!!