The Sanctuary Group have announced a number of management changes which have immediate effect.
First up Merck Mercuriadis, who has been developing Sanctuary's US operations until now, will become Group CEO, directing and managing creative strategy on a global basis, based in New York. Sanctuary co-founder Andy Taylor will stay on as Executive Chairman directing more commercial and financial parts of the business.
Commenting on Mercuriadis' appointment, Taylor told CMU: "Sanctuary's success has been based on a strategic combination of creative and commercial skills. In the past Rod Smallwood, my co-founder, managed the creative aspects of the company whilst I looked after the commercial and financial aspects. With Merck's appointment, we are continuing that successful process. His affinity with the artist community makes him an ideal person to drive Sanctuary's success globally, across all of our businesses".
At the same time there will be other changes in the top team. Aky Najeeb and Joe Cokell, who currently oversee, respectively, Sanctuary's artist services and record labels everywhere except North America, will also get global roles. Tom Lipsky, currently President of Sanctuary Records Group North America, will become CEO of the Group's US operations and get an expanded role. Carl Stubner and Pete Asher, currently co-presidents of Sanctuary Artist Management North America, will also get expanded roles.
Commenting on his new top team, Mercuriadis told us: "This is a significant time in the development of the Group and our [cross-sector] model and there are many exciting challenges ahead that will ultimately solidify the changes in the music industry and Sanctuary's prominent role within it. We have an executive team that is second to none to implement our creative and commercial strategy and, combined with our 360 degree infrastructure and the right fresh ideas, this gives me every reason to be confident that with each passing day we not only become ever more attractive to the most important career artists but we are also leading the transformation of our industry." So there you go.