Managerobit: Jill Sinclair

A grim press release from SPZ:

With deep regret, the SPZ Group and the Horn family announce that Jill Sinclair passed away on Saturday 22 March 2014, aged 61.

Wife of Trevor Horn and mother of Ally, Aaron, William and Gabriella, Jill co-founded the SPZ Group in 1984. She quickly became one of the most successful managers, and headed up some of the most successful publishing, record label and studio businesses, in UK music history.

She died peacefully at home in London, from cancer.

On behalf of the whole family, Trevor Horn, comments: "Jill was an inspiration in every aspect of her life, as my wife and as the mother of our children. She had an adventurous, maverick spirit and built up music businesses - and made her way through life - successfully and independently, and always on her own terms. She will be sorely missed."

A funeral was held on Monday 24 March. The family ask that no flowers are sent, preferring donations to the Royal Hospital for Neuro-Disability (www.rhn.org.uk), Cancer Research (www.cancerresearchuk.org), or the JTJ Trust Fund (www.jillsinclairandfrjimteelingtrustfund.com).

No further statement or comment is available at this time.

Jill has been seriously injured in a shooting accident in 2006; she spent three years in a coma and according to Horn, in 2006 "the only expression she can show is of discomfort."

In 1999, Horn and Jill did a 'my partner and me' interview for The Independent, where they spoke about their relationships, professional and personal:

We got married but didn't go into business together for a year or two [says Trveor]. When my partner left me on my own, I said to Jill: "The good thing is that you can manage me now." Fifteen seconds after I appointed her, she told me I would have to give up trying to be an artist and concentrate on being a producer. She thought I could be the best producer in the world.
[...]
[Jill says] I never had any doubts that Trevor would be an enormous success, but it was only when I was named Businesswoman of the Year that I thought about my own career at all. I had just worked and never had a plot. When I did some training recently, the guy said: "What do you want to achieve?" That stumped me. World peace? I've no pretensions to be able to write or sing. I sing all the time, but heaven help us if my career depended on it.

I've learnt from Trevor. He's not one for confrontation; he's a dreamer. I'm more pragmatic, I've never been much of a one for subtlety, but these days I'm much more patient and able to see things from the other point of view. I think the strength of the partnership is that we both do such different jobs. We get things wrong but we both know that we are doing our utmost. We're both forgiving. And there isn't anyone I'd rather be with.