About Giancarlo Salvestrin (Gene Pierson)

Australian music and publishing entrepreneur Gene Pierson (born Giancarlo Salvestrin, 29 April 1948) enjoyed a successful solo recording career in the 60s and 70s before becoming instrumental in helping to establish the careers of numerous top-performing Australian artists including AC/DC, INXS, Air Supply and Sebastian Hardie.

Following his string of successful singles, which included chart hits Love Love Love, You Got to Me, Toyland and Reach Out, Pierson went on to become one of the industry’s top promoters, managers and booking agents.

Among his vast musical achievements are managing pop legend Johnny O’Keefe; booking international stars Sammy Davis Jr, Frank Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Trini Lopez and Dusty Springfield; touring with the Four Tops and Johnny Farnham; releasing Neil Diamond’s song You Got to Me, after which he was rewarded by Neil Diamond’s manager for being the first artist to do a cover version of a Neil Diamond song outside of the US; reporting on Elton John’s first concert; interviewing Tina Turner; introducing the first Australian pop segment on Channel 7, Today Pop; and helping to launch the success careers of some of Australia’s top talent including Sherbet and Melissa Tkautz.

Pierson also established the Indigenous Australia label, where he recorded over 100 albums including recordings by Ash Dargan. In 2009, he merged the label into his Lifestyle Music Group, recording a huge range of styles of music including classical, ambient, jazz, sacred sounds and world music.

Under the Lifestyle Music Group label, distributed by Sony Music Entertainment, he produced the album Angel Without Wings for Australia's Got Talent runner-up Cameron (Cam) Henderson and made music history by having the first Australian Dance Chart album Don't Funk With Me by Alston Koch enter the ARIA charts at #2, where it remained for seven weeks.

His highly successful business ventures outside of the music industry include acquiring the Peter Lik Publishing Group from renowned Australian photographer Peter Lik in 2012 and owning two exclusive tropical retreats with his wife Sharon - East Bedarra Island Retreat on Bedarra Island and Misty Mountains Nature Retreat in Mount Bellenden Ker.