Peter Mensch

Peter Mensch (born March 28, 1953) is an American music manager and entrepreneur. He co-founded the management company Q Prime alongside Cliff Burnstein. The company's first client was Def Leppard, and it has since managed the careers of many notable acts, including Metallica and Cage The Elephant. The Financial Times has called Q Prime "one of the most admired artist management companies".

Mensch started his career in music management at the age of 26, managing AC/DC at the company Leber-Krebs.

Early life and education Peter David Mensch was born in New York City, the eldest of three children to Martin, an attorney, and Jean Mensch, an educator. His family is Jewish.

His sister, Barbara Sena Mensch, was the youngest hostage of the Dawson's Field hijackings of September 6, 1970. Mensch graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1971. He attended Brandeis University and worked as a music director for the college radio station, where he met Cliff Burnstein. After graduating from Brandeis, he received his master's degree in Marketing from the University of Chicago.

Career

Blank Records and Leber-Krebs (1977–1982) Mensch began his professional career after graduating from the University of Chicago. His first assignment was as a label manager with Blank Records in New York. Shortly thereafter, he joined mega-talent firm Leber-Krebs as a tour accountant. He worked with such acts as Aerosmith and Scorpions.

On the advice of his friend Cliff Burnstein, then at Mercury Records, Mensch targeted the British group Def Leppard. He booked the band as support act on an AC/DC tour. A BBC documentary on the band records their unhappiness with their early managers Pete Martin and Frank Stuart-Brown, following a fist-fight between singer Joe Elliott and Martin. The film quotes Mensch as saying Burnstein told him "I don't care if they have managers...steal them from another set of managers." The band's drummer Rick Allen recollects that he did approach Mensch, and Mensch signed them to Leber-Krebs.

Q Prime (1982–present) After a disagreement with Leber-Krebs over royalties, Mensch was terminated from that firm and started Q Prime with Cliff Burnstein. Def Leppard was the sole client to come with the new firm.

According to an interview with The Sunday Times, Mensch stated that he had assisted with the sale of "hundreds of millions" of records, adding "I can't be more specific than that." On February 17, 2011, in a Manhattan courthouse, he married his third wife, Louise Mensch, then member of British Parliament, despite their political differences (Louise alleges that Peter is a communist). Louise subsequently became widely known in the U.S. for her reporting and speculation about connections between the Trump administration and the Russian government.

Mensch currently lives in Manhattan.