ERA NAMES ITS 2025 RISING STARS
Laura Wainwright and Morgan Coates to join ERA’s Future Leaders Programme
Digital entertainment and retail association ERA has named Laura Wainwright, Vendor Manager at Amazon Prime Video, and Morgan Coates, Music Partnerships Manager at innovative merchandise chip company IYK GMI Inc., as winners of its Rising Stars awards.
The awards were presented last night (Wednesday September 3) in front of a packed crowd at the association’s annual summer party. Wainwright and Coates will now join ERA’s Future Leaders Programme which celebrates emerging executive talent in the entertainment industry.
ERA CEO Kim Bayley said, “With the vital role digital services and retailers play in shaping the fortunes of the music, video and games industries, it is essential that we nurture and celebrate the executives of the future. We are delighted to hail Laura and Morgan as Rising Stars and to welcome them to the Future Leaders Programme.”
Laura Wainwright was nominated for her work with a range of Amazon Prime Video’s UK studio partners from the very smallest up to international majors, collaborating with them to showcase their content to customers and drive UK transactional segment growth, while also leading the launch of the store in international territories.
Recent successes included implementing new case management tooling to help smaller partners streamline operational queries, and leading Prime Video’s engagement with film education charity Into Film. Wainwright has championed the cause of smaller partners, including setting up partner interviews with Prime Video’s US-based tech teams to ensure the voices of smaller international (ex-US) partners are heard.
Morgan Coates was recognised for his transformational impact on the music retail sector deploying IYK’s proprietary chip technology which can be applied to virtually any physical merchandise product. His citation notes in particular his pioneering work on the Disturbed tour, overseeing the production of over 150,000 chipped merchandise items. His efforts not only brought IYK’s innovative tech to the touring world but also helped secure UK chart eligibility for chipped goods. His work with the Official Charts Company resulted in IYK chipped product usage counting towards UK chart placements for artists including Bury Tomorrow, Bring Me the Horizon, Bradley Simpson, and Tate McRae.
The ERA Rising Star Awards are given to individuals who work for an ERA member organization who are newcomers to the industry (10 years or less) and who have gone above and beyond in their role.
Rising Stars then join the Future Leaders Programme, launched in March 2025 whose objective is to incubate fast-rising young executives, provide networking and mentoring opportunities and to ensure new voices are heard in the fast-changing digital entertainment and retail landscape
Kim Bayley said, “The Future Leaders Programme has already proven its worth both for participants and for the broader ERA membership encouraging fresh and innovative thinking on some of the industry’s most challenging topics.”