Virgin Music Forms Global Leadership Team
• Virgin Music Group announced the core members of its global leadership team. As part of a global reorganization, Virgin Music Group integrates Ingrooves’ industry-leading global platform and patented marketing technology with Virgin Music, to offer independent artists and labels a full suite of global services. The company has already begun to integrate operations among the teams in 32 countries, a process that will proceed over the coming months. As the global independent music division of UMG, Virgin Music Group is expanding as a stand-alone organization, now under common Virgin branding, working within a proprietary global system that includes a unified infrastructure, platform, product suite, and team.
Moving forward, Virgin Music Group will be organized into five key regions, with country leaders reporting to the newly appointed regional leaders — Jacqueline Saturn is named President of Virgin Music Group North America, and EVP of Global Artist Relations; Thomas Lorain and Nick Roden are named Co-Presidents of Virgin Music Group Europe; Victor Gonzales is named President of Virgin Music Group Latin America & Iberian Peninsula; Cris Garcia Falcão is named Managing Director of Label & Artist Strategy and GM of Virgin Music Group Latin; Nathan McLay is named Managing Director of Virgin Music Group Australia & New Zealand; and Managing Director Tim Janes will be focused on marketing international repertoire in the region; Michael Roe is named Managing Director of Virgin Music Group Africa, Middle East, and Asia (AMEA).
Virgin Music Group has also named a centralized global leadership team — Jay Blomquist is named Chief Technology Officer; Jeremy Kramer is named Executive Vice President of Global Marketing; Joy Laroccais named EVP/CFO; Liz Morentin is named Senior Vice President of Global Communications & Brand Strategy; Matt Sawin is named Head of Global Product Strategy and Operations; Nina Rabe-Cairns is named Head of Global Growth Strategy; and Zack Gershen is named EVP of Global Commercial & Digital Strategy.
The newly appointed global leadership team will report directly to Virgin Music Group Co-CEOs JT Myers and Nat Pastor. Myers remarked, “It’s an enormously exciting time to be working in the independent sector of our business,” said JT Myers, Virgin Music Group, Co-CEO. “In today’s market, visionary music entrepreneurs can be successful on a global scale if they have the right team and infrastructure to empower them. That’s what we are building at VMG, a company that combines the industry’s leading technology, brand identity, and executive expertise with unparalleled global scale in order to help our partners in the independent community to achieve their goals.”
Pastor commented, “As we continue to deepen our relationships within the growing independent music sector, each of these veteran executives will help to ensure that Virgin Music Group has the kind of global infrastructure and expertise that is nimble, efficient, and puts innovation and creativity at the center of everything we do. Together this executive team will provide independent artists and labels with a powerful global team to help them build their audiences around the world.” [Photo credit: Jordan Strauss]
