Gregg Latterman

Gregg Latterman is an American entrepreneur, academic, and angel investor. The founder of Aware Records, he is the executive director of the Zell Lurie Institue for Entrepreneurship and clinical assistant professor of entrepreneurial studies at the University of Michigan. He was previously an adjunct professor at Northwestern University and adjunct lecturer at Kellogg School of Management.

Latterman put together a compilation CD of his favorite unsigned bands in 1993. He released it on his own label, and quit his job as a CPA the day it came out. The label, Aware, became "one of the most durable and influential independent forces in music," with Latterman helping to launch the careers of artists including John Mayer, Train, Mat Kearney, Hootie & The Blowfish, and Five For Fighting.

In 2012, after more than 25 million records were sold on Aware, Latterman decided to return to school. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, and earned a master's degree in positive psychology under Martin Seligman. He was an adjunct professor at Northwestern University Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. and competed in both in high school and college. A music fan, he made mixtapes for friends, who would in return send him CDs by independent bands. Latterman was also interested in business, and read magazines such as Forbes and Business Week as a teenager.

Latterman attended Northern Michigan University on a partial athletic scholarship. He transferred to Michigan State in 1987 and graduated in 1990 with a degree in accounting. In 1996, Latterman received an MBA in marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and in 2013 earned a master's degree in Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Career 1990-1995: Launch of Aware Records, early success After receiving his accounting degree, Latterman moved to Boston. He worked as a CPA at Coopers & Lybrand, a job he actively disliked, leading him to apply to MBA programs. he founded Madaket Records and put together Aware 1, a compilation CD of unsigned artists. On the day the album was released, he quit his job and moved to Vail, Colorado, where he coached the Vail Mountain ski team and developed strategies to promote the CD. Peter Margasak of the Chicago Reader later wrote that Latterman "knew little about the music industry when he came to it, but instead of dutifully learning and following its protocols, he developed his own."

As he prepared to release Aware 2, Latterman was accepted to the MBA program at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. He moved to Evanston, Illinois, and as a full-time student, he continued to build Aware Records. Aware 2, released in 1995, featured songs from artists who would go on to achieve significant success, including Better Than Ezra, The Verve Pipe, Vertical Horizon, Hootie & the Blowfish, and the Edwin McCain Band.

1996-2000: Aware/Columbia, A Squared Management Latterman received his MBA in 1996. Aware had a staff of eight and an office in Chicago; it had released the third Aware compilation—which included a track from Tabitha's Secret, the precursor to Matchbox 20—and produced the first Aware Tour. The company had put out full-length albums by Stir and Thanks to Gravity, and had set up one of the first online music stores, as well as a traveling store with the exclusive right to sell CDs on the H.O.R.D.E. Tour. Latterman had also served as an A&R consultant for Atlantic (in 1995) and MCA (in 1996).

In 1997, Aware and Columbia Records launched a joint venture that provided distribution for Aware's developing artists through RED, Sony's independent distribution arm, while at the same time serving as a "farm team" for Columbia—at a certain sales threshold, releases were moved to the Aware/Columbia imprint and marketed through Columbia. In 1998, Aware/RED released Train's self-titled platinum debut.,

2000-2010: John Mayer, Five for Fighting, The Fray In 2000, Latterman was sent an EP of John Mayer. He included two of Mayer's songs on Aware 8, and in early 2001, Aware released Mayers debut album, Room for Squares, as an internet-only album. It was re-released on Columbia in September, and went on to sell more than 5 million albums. Mayer was one of three Aware artists to receive Grammy nominations in 2002; Train was nominated for the album Drops of Jupiter, and Five for Fighting was nominated for their song "Superman (It's Not Easy)." Mayer won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Your Body is a Wonderland."

Aware/Universal Republic released more than 50 records in partnership with Columbia; In 2010, with more than 25 million records sold over the 15-year period of the joint venture, Aware entered into a new distribution agreement with Universal Republic. In 2012, at 45, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where, as a student of Martin Seligman, he earned a master's degree in positive psychology.

Latterman began teaching at Northwestern

He was named executive director of Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in 2024. The Zach Bryan concert that took place at the school's football stadium in September 2025 was Latterman's idea, and he facilitated the August 2024 conversations between the school's athletics department and promoter Anschutz Entertainment Group. The concert was the first held in the stadium since it was built in 1927. More than 112,000 tickets were sold. It was the largest ticketed single concert event in US history.

Personal life Latterman lives in Chicago, with his wife, Sue, and their three children. He is on the advisory board for the Nantucket Project and a member of the US Soccer Development Council.