Executive Turntable: Sony Music Nashville Restructures, Capitol Loses Lombardi, Twitter Poaches Apple and More

Nick Williams
·3 min read

— Columbia Records elevated Justin Eshak and Imran Majid to svps of A&R. Eshak played an integral role in the signing and development of Hozier and Leon Bridges, while Majid’s successes include Rachel Platten and Dej Loaf.

— After more than 11 years with Capitol Music Group, Dave Lombardi announced he would be exiting his position as vp of Promotion at Caroline, effective March 31.

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— Sony Music Nashville announced a strategic realignment of its promotion and marketing staff: Josh Easler was named vp, Promotion, Arista Nashville; Lauren Thomas was named to the newly created position of director, National Promotion; Keith Gale continues to serve as senior vice president, Promotion, RCA Nashville; and evp Steve Hodges will lead the Columbia Nashville promotion team until a new vp is announced. Newly created positions include: Bob Foglia as manager, Strategic Marketing and Lyssa Wheaton as manager, Marketing.

— Lisa Bellamore joined YouTube as head of music communications. She previously was a senior publicist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

— Twitter appointed former Apple comms executive Natalie Kerris as its new vp of communications.

— BMG appointed Steve Redmond senior vp global corporate communications.

— Atlas Music Publishing announced three new hires and a number of promotions. Chris Jones has partnered with Atlas to form the Atlanta-based State Line/Atlas, focusing on urban/pop. Rob Levin joined the LA team in the creative synch department, while Andy Golden is now a member of the operations team in NYC. Atlas also promoted Ryan Brodhead to vp licensing, administration and royalties; Molly Seel Jonke, Jake Simon and Kristen Bushnell to directors in the creative/synch teams; and Caitlin Haurie has been promoted to coordinator within the creative synch team in NYC.

— Publicist Jill Fritzo (Kristin Chenowith, the Whitney Houston estate) exited PMK*BNC after 23 years to form her own agency. She will be bringing publicist Michael Geiser with her to the new bicoastal venture.

— PMK*BNC‘s Erica Gerard (Kings of Leon, Austin Mahone, Sean Combs) was elevated to vp, music.

— David Burrier exited his post as gm of Red Bull Records in Los Angeles after an 8 1/2-year run.

— Downtown Music Publishing elevated Bea Koramblyum to senior director, Business Affairs.

— Phil Savill was promoted to the new role of managing director of the Commercial Music Group at Sony Music U.K. Savill joined the company in 1990 as a commercial product manager, and from 2013, he was vp, marketing, Commercial Music Group.

— Musicians Institute appointed Donny Gruendler as president of the College of Contemporary Music in Hollywood, Calif.

— VPL appointed Geoff Kempin as Chairman, following the retirement of Fran Nevrkla as Chairman at the end of 2015. Kempin has been a director of VPL since its inception in 1983 and continues to be executive director of Eagle Rock Entertainment.

— Sentric Music hired publishing veteran Peter McCamley, who joins the Sentric board and will take on the executive role of creative director.

— Secret Road Music Services named Jerome Spence vp of film, television, advertising markets and business development. Based in Los Angeles, Spence has many years of experience in licensing, A & R, and management with previous positions at Peermusic, Position Music and Arista Records.

— Genius appointed Andre Torres and Christine Werthman as executive editors. Torres is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Wax Poetics, and Werthman was formerly the Deputy Editor of Complex Music and previously worked at CMJ, XXL, and other New York-based publications.

— Universal Music Group’s Fiction label manager Lisa Ward joined Red Light Management as evp, Artist Strategy.

— Stingray Digital Group appointed Alejandra Olea as gm, Latin America.

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