Warner Music Group has named Stephen Cooper to the position of chief executive officer. He is trading places with Edgar Bronfman Jr., who has held that title since 2004 and now assumes Cooper’s former responsibilities as chairman of the company’s board of directors.
Lyor Cohen, chairman and CEO, Recorded Music, and Cameron Strang, chairman and CEO of Warner/Chappell Music, will remain in their positions and report directly to Cooper.
Cooper also is a director at Access Industries, the investment group that owns Warner Music Group.
“With the Access Industries transaction closed and WMG well-positioned for its next exciting chapter, it was clear that in order to best seize the strategic opportunities before us, we needed to deploy our team in the most effective and imaginative manner possible,” said Bronfman (pictured) in a statement.
Thomas H. Lee has been elected as a new director of WMG, which increases the size of WMG’s board to ten members. Lee is the chairman and CEO of Thomas H. Lee Capital and previously served as a member of WMG’s board from March 2004 through July 2011.
Cooper has more than 30 years of experience as a financial advisor, and among his other accomplishments has served as chairman or chief executive officer of various businesses, including vice chairman and member of the office of chief executive officer of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. and chief executive officer of Hawaiian Telcom.
Warner Music Group has posted net losses in all but one of the last seven fiscal years. It includes labels like Asylum, Atlantic, Cordless, East West, Elektra, Nonesuch, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, Rykodisc, Sire, Warner Bros. and Word, as well as leading music publisher Warner/Chappell Music.
Photo of Edgar Bronfman Jr., courtesy of Warner Music Group.
