WME announces major organizational restructuring for the company’s music department.
WME has outlined in a company-wide memo a new organizational structure for the company’s music department. The memo details strategic changes for the agency focused around A&R, bookings, and crossover opportunities. Global head of contemporary music, Lucy Dickins, and global co-head of contemporary music, Kirk Sommer, elaborated on their plans introduced over the summer to build upon the 45,000 concerts the team book this year.
Changes to A&R include “new artist discovery (being) coordinated across all genres and regions,” reads the memo. “Given the globalization of our business and the speed at which new artists break today, we believe this is a critical piece to identifying new talent.” Kevin Shivers will head those endeavors, working with regional and genre leads.
Regarding booking, WME will continue to build upon its “multiple regional servicing groups, including an Asia-Pacific presence, Latin-American team, and a robust European operation,” said Dickins and Sommer. Ron Opaleski will lead global bookings and international touring strategy across North America, while Tony Goldring will head similar efforts for international clients. Josh Kurfirst will lead the efforts on behalf of festivals, Clint Mitchell for non-traditional tour, and Ryan Jones for the company’s private and corporate events.
Sommer and Dickins detailed that changes to the company’s crossover department will be “our #1 differentiator.” Keith Sarkisian will step in to oversee the coordination of non-touring services for the agency’s roster, working with divisions across WME. That includes working with WME partner/head of new music strategy, Dvora Englefield, who “will continue to identify new business opportunities and strategic partnerships on behalf of artists.”
The company will also see the appointment of its first regional office leads, managed by Brian Ahern. The leads for WME’s international offices are Kevin Shivers in Beverly Hills, Michael Coughlin in Nashville, Stephanie LaFera in New York, Josh Javor in London, and Brett Murrihy in Sydney.
“These new roles and areas of responsibility reflect the evolution of our business today — we are a truly global operation, we have unparalleled scale, and we have more opportunities to provide our artists than ever before,” said the memo. “With this new structure highlighting key areas of responsibility and the leadership behind it, we will now be even better equipped to provide best-in-class services to our music clients and partners.”
The memo announced the promotion of seven agents to partner at WME, as well as 16 employees to agent: Kyle Bandler, Mark Claassen, Andrew Colvin, Beth Hamilton, Sloane Logue, Austin Mullins, Travis Wolfe, Sam Dolen, Janelle Flint, Jacob Fox, Josh Green, Lindsey Hastings, Carly Huffman, Dan Kuklinski, Sean McHugh, Meera Patel, Adam Sherif, John Showfety, Jeremy Upton, Carlile Willett, Laura Williams, Cecilia Yao, and Ben Yekuel.