Cindy Charles has died. Twitch‘s head of music died in Amsterdam after a traffic accident. She was 69.
Local news outlets reported that Charles, who had been in Amsterdam to speak on a panel at the Amsterdam Dance Event, died on Oct. 14 after a collision with a garbage truck by the Passeerdersgracht canal.
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Charles’ husband, Ricky Fishman, paid tribute to his late wife on Facebook.
“My family and I have been devastated by this loss. I met Cindy fifty years ago at SUNY Buffalo. Though we didn’t date at the time, we were good friends, running with the same motley crew. We lost touch after college, both got married, each had a son, and reconnected at a thirty year ‘friends reunion,’” he wrote. “We have been together ever since, living bicoastal lives, between Manhattan and Berkeley.”
“There will be no filling the hole in the universe left by Cindy’s departure from this world. She gave love and she received love, building a network of friends unrivaled by any person I have ever known,” Fishman continued. “So many are grieving right now.”
Fishman added, “Life is such a fragile affair, and what we have today, we may not, tomorrow.
Sending love to you all, but especially to Cindy, who graced the world with her presence. Her life was cut short, but it burned brightly as her memory surely will.”
Cindy Charles Remembered by Her Colleagues
Charles was an advisor to the Board of Governors of the Recording Academy and fostered opportunities for women in the business through She Is the Music’s San Francisco chapter, which she co-founded.
Daniel Clancy, Twitch‘s CEO, commented on the “truly tragic” news on X.
“Cindy was killed in a traffic accident when she was traveling in the Netherlands,” Clancy wrote. “Most of the members of the Twitch community are probably not familiar with Cindy’s work, but she has been leading our team that manages our relationship with the music industry. Cindy has a deep history in the music business and she has been critical in creating the strong relationships that we have today.”
“Anyone that uses music on Twitch owes a debt of gratitude to Cindy’s work. She always had a bright smile on her face even as she negotiated unprecedented music licensing agreements for Twitch including the recent DJ agreement,” he continued. “Anyone that worked with Cindy knows how much she cared about everyone with whom she worked. I know everyone that has worked with her was shocked to hear the news.”
Clancy concluded, “We will all dearly miss her and we are sorry to see her go. A little bit of her will remain with all of us that worked with her all of these years.”
In a post on Medium, Charles’s colleague Kira Karlstrom called the late executive “the heart and soul of our team, and a force for good in everything she touched.”
“Though we started as colleagues, Cindy quickly became so much more. She was a mentor, a confidante, a friend, and to me, one of my closest,” Karlstrom wrote. “She was family. Cindy had this magnetic presence — she was the light that filled every room, the laughter that broke through even the hardest moments, and the energy that kept us pushing forward when we needed it most.”
Charles is survived by her husband, her son, Ben, and her stepson, Sam.
