Troy Carter is an artist manager and CEO of Atom Factory. His expanding roster includes Lady Gaga, Priyanka Chopra, Mindless Behavior, and Greyson Chance. Carter is a master at leveraging the power of digital media as the next-generation model to connect with fans and cultivate brand loyalty. As a brand and corporate strategist, his portfolio of investments and startup endeavors read as a summary of the hottest trends in today’s technology landscape.

As Lady Gaga’s manager, Carter — who has worked alongside the likes of Will Smith, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and the late Notorious B.I.G.—has helped cement the pop star’s formidable online presence by cultivating and encouraging the philosophy of “fans first.” Beyond social media, Carter’s brand strategy has culminated in Gaga’s continued cultural pervasiveness — both because of the loyalty between Gaga and her fans as well as through partnerships with MAC, Google, Virgin Mobile, and Zynga.

Carter is continually in search of new platforms, methods, and technologies to improve the consumer-brand relationship and to create value for his partners, his clients, and the people they touch. Currently Carter, along with Lady Gaga, has begun development of Backplane, a new social-media platform that blends celebrity and technology.