Nicki Farag, 39
EXECUTIVE VP PROMOTION, DEF JAM RECORDINGS
A 17-year Def Jam veteran, Farag in March 2018
became the first female executive vp in the
company’s history. Her track record has included
driving pop hits for Kanye West, Alessia Cara and
Justin Bieber, as well as Rihanna, for whom Farag
has promoted 14 No. 1 songs on the Billboard
Hot 100— and at least one chart-topping single
on each of the singer’s last seven studio albums.
“She is the quintessential radio artist,” says Farag.
Now the executive is eyeing the label’s rising roster
upstarts, like Dominican American DaniLeigh and
Florida rapper-singer YK Osiris, whose breakout
hit “Worth It” peaked at No. 48 on the Hot 100 in
August. “ ‘Worth It’ has gone platinum and [Osiris’
2018 hit] ‘Valentine’ went gold,” says Farag. Osiris
“has touched a demographic, urban young teens,
that hasn’t been touched in a really long time.”
BEFORE I TURN 40, I WANT T0... “My bucket list I
just achieved. My wife and I bought a home in the
Pacific Palisades. It’s our first home, ever.”
Becky Gardenhire, 38
PARTNER AND CO-HEAD OF NASHVILLE, WME
Gardenhire, who joined WME in 2002 and became
a partner in 2017, led her team to book more than
14,000 dates for her clients in the past year, she
says, and oversaw Rascal Flatts’ Summer Playlist
Tour this year. Passionate about breaking new
bands, Gardenhire helped Ingrid Andress debut at
the C2C: Country to Country festival in London and
perform with Little Big Town’s Kimberly Schlap-
man and Karen Fairchild for Cracker Barrel’s new
initiative “Five Decades, One Voice,” celebrating
the women of country music. “There’s a lot of
great opportunities for new clients right now,” says
Gardenhire. “It’s healthier than it’s ever been, and it
feels like it’s never stopping.”
MOST PRESSING ISSUE “Diversity! I’m a part of [the
Academy of Country Music’s] diversity and inclu-
sion task force. We are diving deep into what steps
we can all take to make sustainable change.”
Marissa Gastelum, 39
LATIN MUSIC ARTIST RELATIONS, APPLE MUSIC
Gastelum launched the Latin hit-driven ¡Dale
Play! in October 2018 with the premiere of Bad
Bunny and Drake’s “MIA.” It became the first Latin
playlist on the music streaming service’s top five
and remains the top Latin playlist throughout
Latin America, reports Apple. ¡Dale Play! is also a
platform for emerging artists, who often appear on
Apple’s weekly companion radio show. “Labels are
fighting for the [exposure],” says Gastelum. “These
are our relations, our family.”
BEFORE I TURN 40, I WANT TO... “Skydive.”
Justus Haerder, 35
EXECUTIVE VP GROUP STRATEGY,
MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS; BMG
Since joining BMG’s M&A team right out of
college in 2009, Haerder has played a key role
in the company’s expansion. He helped guide
BMG’s largest label acquisition in a decade with
the $100 million-plus deal for Nashville-based
indie BBR Music Group, home of Broken Bow and
Stoney Creek Records, in 2017. “That acquisition
immediately gave us scale and muscle in that
market,” says Haerder.
TEN YEARS AGO I WAS... “Just starting at BMG. I
describe it as ‘a startup on steroids’ back then.”
Walter Jones, 38
CO-HEAD OF A&R, UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP
Jones’ promotion this month to co-head (with
David Gray) of A&R for UMPG is his latest achieve-
ment in a decade-plus as a music publisher. He
partnered with Quality Control to sign a publishing
deal with Lil Baby (whose catalog has logged 6.1 bil-
lion streams) and won a Grammy Award earlier this
year for co-producing H.E.R.’s self-titled LP, named
best R&B album of the year. He’s also been the A&R
collaborator for Quavo, Metro Boomin, Lil Yachty,
CuBeatz, Quay Global, City Girls and more.
MOST PRESSING ISSUE “Fair compensation for
songwriters.”
Sam Juneman, 29
VP COMMERCIAL PARTNERSHIPS, UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP
Juneman has worked on 12 No. 1 albums in her
first year as vp commercial partnerships at UMG,
she notes. One was Billie Eilish’s When We All Fall
Asleep, Where Do We Go?, for which Juneman’s
team created an interactive version of Eilish’s bed-
room on the 17-year-old singer’s website. “How
often do you get to do something so cool and
weird and outside of the box?” says Juneman.
Fadia Kader, 37
MUSIC PARTNERSHIPS, INSTAGRAM
Kader credits her previous work in the fashion
industry for what she calls her “superpower” of fore-
casting the next big thing — like “doing Drake’s first
sold-out concert [in Atlanta] that got him signed in
2009.” For Instagram, Kader defined music as one
of the lead verticals for the IGTV long-form video
app, working with Beyoncé’s team on content (her
first video has netted over 12 million views) and with
Pharrell Williams, who created a Tokyo city guide
that allowed Instagram to be “part of the story and
not just [a place for] it to live,” says Kader.
Brooke Michael Kain, 39
CHIEF DIGITAL OFFICER, AEG PRESENTS
Kain launched AEG’s customer data platform
initiative in 2019, which provides tailored offers
THE SONG THAT SUMS UP MY PHILOSOPHY
“Cardi B’s ‘Bodak Yellow.’ I’m this little
white girl from Texas. It empowers
me, makes me feel like a badass even
though I’m a mom.” —MAGGIE MARTIN
DEGREES OF
DISTINCTION
What does it take to gain 40 Under 40
status? A breakout of the areas of study that
led to achievement for this year’s honorees
39.5%
Liberal Arts
23%
Business/Economics
17%
Media
12.5%
Marketing
6%
Did Not Attend or Graduate
2%
Computer Technology
Methodology: Based on questionnaires completed by 40 Under 40
honorees. Percentages rounded to add up to 100.
JONES
JUNEMAN
KADER
HAERDER
GARDENHIRE
GASTELUM
FARAG
KAIN
58 BILLBOARD • SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 ILLUSTRATION BY BENJAMIN WACHENJE
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