Teresa LaBarbera Whites

Teresa LaBarbera Whites is an American A&R, music executive, talent scout, and executive producer, who is best known for discovering Destiny's Child and Jessica Simpson. She is currently the A&R executive for Chloe x Halle.

Originally the Southwest regional talent scout for Sony Music in the 1990s, Whites was offered an A&R position with Columbia Records, eventually pitching and signing Destiny's Child and Jessica Simpson to Columbia. Over the next eight years, she would organize several multi-platinum projects: The Writing's on the Wall (1999), Sweet Kisses (1999), Survivor (2001), Dangerously in Love (2003), In This Skin (2003), and Destiny Fulfilled (2004). Whites was then offered the Jive/Zomba Vice-President of A&R position, where she would subsequently oversee the direction of Nick Lachey's 2006 solo breakthrough album What's Left of Me, as well as various Backstreet Boys, JC Chasez, and Britney Spears projects. Whites would eventually reunite with Destiny's Child member Beyoncé Knowles in 2011, first becoming Senior Vice-President, A&R of Columbia Records, and then subsequently becoming A&R executive for Knowles' label imprint Parkwood Entertainment, overseeing song selection for her eponymous fifth album, Lemonade, and several other projects.

In 2022, Whites parted ways with Parkwood Entertainment to become CEO and owner of her own music agency Highbank Entertainment. Her first project was to oversee Chloe Bailey's 2023 debut solo album In Pieces.

Whites also operates several annual writing retreats for songwriters at The Arbor House Bed & Breakfast which she owns with her husband in Texas.

Selected executive production and a&r credits
Credits are courtesy of Discogs, Tidal, Apple Music, and AllMusic.