Martin Mills
Chairman, Beggars Group
In a career that stretches back to 1968 (and a
mobile disco named after the Rolling Stones
album Beggars Banquet), Mills, 70, works
very much in the moment. He heralds “the
music we released this [past] year, which I
believe will be moving fans and influencing
other musicians in 20 years’ time: Big Thief,
black midi, FKA twigs, Lankum, Aldous
Harding.” Leading Beggars Group, Mills
takes pride in being “a prominent part of
the success and growth of the indie sec-
tor, and of the importance of Merlin and
the American Association of Independent
Music, at a time when market consolidation
would normally make life harder for small
companies. We are committed to working
with independent partners globally.”
Doug Morris
Founder, 12 Tone Music Group
Morris, 81, the only executive to hold top
roles at all three major music groups during
his career (most recently Sony Music from
2011 to 2017), is entering his second year at
the helm of 12 Tone. The indie label is home
to Anderson .Paak, Lauren Daigle and Joji,
whose “Slow Dancing in the Dark” reached
No. 7 on Hot R&B Songs and has logged
over 509 million streams. “It’s the smallest
company, but we’ve done very well,” says
Morris, crediting his second-in-command,
Steve Bartels, former CEO of Def Jam.
“We’re the smallest midget,” says Morris of
12 Tone. “We have a terrific group of people
here. It has been a lot of fun.”
Brad Navin
CEO, The Orchard
Colleen Theis
COO, The Orchard
The Orchard, guided by Navin, 49, and
Theis, 50, attained new global chart peaks in
the past year. “We achieved No. 1 records all
over the world,” says Navin. He cites gaining
a hit in Europe with “China” from Puerto Ri-
can rapper Anuel AA and continued success
with K-pop — The Orchard helped break
BTS — through a global partnership with
JYP Entertainment. Already one of the larg-
est independent distributors in the world,
The Orchard, owned by Sony Music, will
“reach even greater heights” in 2020, says
Navin, thanks to offices launched in the past
year in Madrid; Seoul; Taipei, Taiwan; and
Warsaw, Poland, among other cities.
Lonny Olinick
CEO, AWAL
Artist streams at AWAL, the recorded-
music division of Kobalt, have more than
doubled in the past year, says Olinick, 38,
who has run it since 2018. And revenue is
up some 80% in the most recent fiscal year,
according to the company. (AWAL does not
report the dollar volume of its results.) “The
roster continues to grow with some of the
most exciting artists and labels, including
Lauv, Kim Petras, Steve Lacy, Omar Apollo,
girl in red, Finneas, Gerry Cinnamon,
Little Simz, Glassnote, SideOne Dummy,
B-Unique, 30th Century Records, XIX
Entertainment and many others,” says Ol-
inick. Under Kobalt’s business model of not
owning copyrights, “artists are just starting
to understand they have the power to own
their creative processes.”
Ron Perry
Chairman/CEO, Columbia Records
Jenifer Mallory
Executive vp/GM, Columbia Records
If there is one song that defined pop music
in 2019, it came on Columbia Records: Lil
Nas X’s rap-country smash “Old Town Road,”
which spent 19 weeks atop the Billboard
Hot 100 and became the chart’s longest-
running No. 1 of all time last summer. Perry,
40, not only had the foresight (and smart
timing) to sign Lil Nas X in March when
the young rapper’s track first bubbled up
online, but he also recruited country icon
Billy Ray Cyrus for the single’s remix — a
move that helped secure the song’s place in
pop history. Lil Nas X has since picked up six
Grammy nominations, including a best new
artist nod, an honor he shares with a fellow
Columbia breakthrough artist: Latin music
singer Rosalía. Says Perry, who marked
two years as the label’s head in January: “It
truly feels like the new chapter of Columbia
Records has just begun.”
Bruce Resnikoff
President/CEO, Universal Music Enterprises
As chief of UMG’s catalog division, Resnikoff
has helped guide two major rereleases for
The Beatles: 2018’s expanded White Album
and a super-deluxe version of Abbey Road
newly mixed by producer Giles Martin
that pushed the title back to No. 3 on the
Billboard 200 in September. The projects
brought “bigger sales than any time in the
last decade” for the Fab Four, says Resnikoff.
Further 2019 highlights include building the
YouTube business of veterans Frank Sinatra
and Marvin Gaye with new videos for clas-
sics “Jingle Bells” and “What’s Going On,”
respectively, in the fall. “It’s about reaching
younger audiences we never could have
reached in the traditional world,” says Resn-
ikoff. “This is the most exciting time in the
music business, particularly for catalog.”
Sylvia Rhone
Chairman/CEO, Epic Records
Epic Records artists “now occupy some
very influential seats at the hip-hop table,”
says Rhone, whose team scored a Hot 100
chart-topper for Travis Scott (“Highest in
the Room”) and five top three debuts on the
Billboard 200 with projects by Scott, Future,
21 Savage and others, while also developing
such acts as Flipp Dinero and Tyla Yaweh.
For Rhone, who was newly promoted to the
role of chairman/CEO in April, the past year
concluded on a high note. Mariah Carey’s
THEIS
OLINICK
PERRY
MALLORY
NAVIN
RESNIKOFF
RHONE
THE BILLBOARD
POWER LIST BY
GENDER: MODEST
PROGRESS
When creating this list, Billboard seeks to reflect
not only the music industry as it is — where men
still have most of the top jobs — but also where it
could be, by proactively seeking to identify women
who deserve recognition for their leadership. As
the industry makes progress toward gender parity
in its executive suites, the Billboard Power List will
reflect that shift, gradual as it may be.
Men 83%
Men 80%
2018
2019
2020
Men 79% 21%
Women
Women
Women
17%
20%
MILLS
MORRIS
2
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114 BILLBOARD • JANUARY 25, 2020
MILLS:TIMSOTER.MORRIS:JEFFREYMAYER.^ N
AVIN,^ THEIS:^ CAROLINE^SINNO^PHOTOGRAPHY.^OLINICK:AYAMAC.^ P
ERRY:^ COURTESY^OFSME.MALLORY:^ JOHNRICARD/SONYMUSIC.^ R
ESNIKOFF:^ KYMBERLY^MARCIANO^STRAUSS.RHONE:^ ARIELLEBOBB-WILLIS.