Executive Turntable: Wasserman Hires M&A EVP; Mammoth Launches Touring Division

It’s time for another spin around the Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music. Also be sure to check out our weekly interview series spotlighting a single executive and a regularly updated gallery honoring many of the industry figures we’ve lost throughout the year.

Wasserman hired Steve Murray as executive vp of mergers & acquisitions and strategy, effective July 15. He joins the company from Providence Equity Partners, where he served as a principal on the investment team. At Providence, he collaborated with companies and organizations including Warner Music, the NFL and Major League Soccer and helped lead the firm’s strategic investment into Wasserman in November 2022. He was also a key player in Wasserman’s acquisitions of CSM Sport & Entertainment and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, both last year.

Independent live music company Mammoth unveiled its new touring division, which will be led by Rob Owens and Angela Brown. Owens, who is based in Mammoth’s new touring office in Nashville, was named president of global touring at Mammoth in April 2023; Brown, who previously held several roles at Live Nation, joined the company last September as president of global tour marketing. Along with the executive announcements, Mammoth revealed it’s set to produce JT‘s City Cinderella Tour and Jamaican dancehall artist Buju Banton‘s U.S. tour alongside AG Entertainment Touring.

Rob Stratton was promoted to vp of visual & media rights at Sony Music Publishing UK. In the role, he will be tasked with leading the publisher’s visual & media efforts in the U.K., maintaining relationships with broadcasters and media production companies, and delivering opportunities for the company’s partners. He will continue working with Cathy Merenda and the U.S. visual & media rights team to expand the business worldwide. He has been with the company since 2014 and was previously director of visual & media rights.

U.K. record executives Nick Burgess and Jack Melhuish launched Artist Theory, a new independent label, in collaboration with U.K. indie label and publisher B-Unique. The label’s roster boasts U.K. rocker Sam Ryder along with emerging artists H.LLS (an electronic/R&B/hip-hop collective) and Emily Jeffri (Gothic pop singer). Both executives hail from Parlophone, where Burgess was co-president and Melhuish was GM/head of marketing.

Big Loud Records promoted Jess Anderson to senior director of media, effective immediately. Anderson has worked with the Big Loud Roster since late 2018. She came in-house with the label in 2021 and helped to create the label’s internal publicity roster in 2022 as director of media relations. The Big Loud roster includes Morgan Wallen, HARDY, ERNEST, Stephen Wilson, Jr., Charles Wesley Godwin, Lauren Watkins and Kashus Culpepper. Anderson’s prior career stops include Sweet Talk Publicity, The Press House and Big Machine Label Group. – Jessica Nicholson

Linlin Chen, the group vp of Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), among other roles, will resign all of her positions at the Chinese company for personal reasons on Sept. 30. “On behalf of the Company, we would like to extend our gratitude to Ms. Chen for her dedicated service at TME,” said Cussian Pang, executive chairman of TME, in a statement. “We appreciate her continuous hard work and commitment, which greatly contributed to the success of Kugou Music, one of China’s leading music streaming platforms. We respect her decision and wish her all the best in all her future endeavors.”

Artist management company, music publisher and record label Blue Raincoat Music named Roman Tagoe director of streaming for Chrysalis Records. He will be based in the company’s London office and report to senior vp of marketing James Meadows. In the role, Tagoe will be responsible for driving success on streaming platforms for the company’s frontline and catalog artists. He was previously at BMG, where he served as director of streaming for global catalog recordings.

BOARD SHORTS: The California Copyright Conference announced its 2024-25 officers and board of directors. The new officers are president Rene Merideth (Exploration), vp Carolyn Soyard (Disney Music Group), treasurer Alexandra Guzman (SESAC), secretary Sarah Brockman (Bardic Inspiration Music Services) and assistant secretary Jean Montiel (peermusic). Re-elected board members include Reggie Calloway (Sound Royalties), Debra Delshad (creative music strategy and licensing consultant), Cheryl Dickerson (music industry consultant) and Paula Savastano (Seeker Music Group). Newly-elected board members include Tara Austin (Austintatious Tunes), Rhonda Bedikian (Heavy Harmony Music), Janelle Hawkes (independent publishing administrator), Brandon Jarrett (TV/film composer/music producer/songwriter) and Wayne Josel (ASCAP). Serving their second board of director terms are Kristina Benson (Sweet On Top) and Jonathan Lane (Clearly Music Services); first alternate is James Jacoby (A Bun Dance Production) and second alternate is Sherry Orson (Star Vibe Group).

Abby O’Neill was named head of cultural programming & strategy at Summit Series, an organization that hosts invite-only events for entrepreneurs, artists, philanthropists and more, including Summit At Sea and the forthcoming Subbmit Baja. O’Neill previously served as an NPR executive producer and strategist, curating and producing more than 100 Tiny Desk Concerts and helping realize a 3,000% viewership increase for the series, among other successes. Through her own company, Key Bridge Entertainment, she co-created the free dance music festival Rock the Park DC in Washington, D.C.

Ralph Kink joined German collecting society GEMA as head of digital transformation, effective Sept. 1. In his new role, Kink will spearhead GEMA’s technological development and serve on the company’s executive board. He previously worked at Microsoft for 25 years and is also the co-founder/CTO of digital.fwd, a management consultancy that specializes in digital transformation and artificial intelligence.

Publicist Nicole Govel launched a new company, Goldfinch Marketing, which will offer PR, influencer marketing and music video promotion services to clients. Govel previously spent eight years as a publicist at Trendsetter Media and Marketing.

Last Week’s Turntable: BMG Europe Exec Exits