Following its acquisition of Downtown Music, Virgin Music Group (VMG) announced its new global and regional leadership team on Tuesday (June 30). The move brings together executives from both VMG and Downtown.
Downtown executives have been named to several key roles across VMG’s six key regions. They include Sarah Landy as senior vp of business development, reporting to Jacqueline Saturn, president of North America and executive vp of global artist relations; Liz Northeast as senior vp and general manager, Europe, reporting to Nick Roden, president, Europe; and Renato Vanzella as managing director, Brazil, reporting to Cris Falcao, president of Brazil and Portugal. Elsewhere, Nathan McLay will continue as managing director of Australia and New Zealand; Michael Roe will continue as managing director of Asia, Middle East and Africa; and Victor González will continue as president of LATAM, U.S. Latin and Spain. All regional leaders report to VMG co-CEOs Nat Pastor and JT Myers.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Kramer and Zack Gershen will continue in their roles as executive vp of global marketing and executive vp of global commercial and digital strategy, respectively. Both will report to Myers and Pastor.
Additionally, Tom Allen has been named chief technology officer of VMG; Christiaan Kröner will serve as executive vp of global operations at VMG; Molly Neuman remains president of CD Baby; Emily Stephenson remains president of Downtown Music Publishing; David Driessen has been named chief product officer at VMG; Matt Sawin has been named executive vp of physical and direct-to-fan-growth at VMG; and Gareth Mellor has been named senior vp of communications and brand strategy at VMG. Allen, Kröner, Neuman, Stephenson, Driessen, Sawin and Mellor will all report to Downtown’s former CEO, Pieter van Rijin, who stepped into the COO role at VMG in February following VMG’s official acquisition of Downtown.
Ben Patterson, who previously served as president of Downtown Artist & Label Services, will now lead a new artist-focused enterprise that collaborates with VMG.
“Virgin Music Group and Downtown have each built their reputations by supervising the independent community and empowering local teams,” Pastor said in a statement. “This combined structure will help grow these strengths, continuing to innovate while deepening the entrepreneurial culture and trusted relationships that will define our future.”
“Our ambition is to keep expanding what’s possible for the independent music community,” added Myers. “That means offering each artist, entrepreneur, label and rightsholder access to broader capabilities and a more connected global network, while remaining flexible enough to meet them wherever they are in their journey.”
“We’ve brought together an exceptional group of leaders with a shared belief: artists and entrepreneurs deserve the strongest possible partner,” van Rijin said in a statement. “Through the skills and technology of the combined organization, we will give more great music the chance to break through and more creative businesses the platform to thrive.”
Virgin and UMG acquired Downtown for $775 million, with UMG divesting Downtown’s rights-management and accounting platform, Curve Royalty Systems, in order to complete the sale. The acquisition included Downtown services FUGA, CD Baby, Songtrust and Downtown Artist & Label Services. At the time of the sale’s completion, Downtown’s founder, Justin Kalifowitz, departed the company.
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