S
PEAKING OF THE QUEEN. SHE
just called.” The words, spoken by Park-
wood Entertainment’s head of public
relations, Yvette Noel-Schure, stop Steve
Pamon midsentence as he sits on a chair
in the company’s midtown Manhattan
offices. “Does she need me?” he asks. “No, no. She’s
good. She’s good,” Noel-Schure replies. Pamon,
who’s wearing a white T-shirt beneath a navy blue
suit offset by a red-white-and-blue stripe on the
sleeves and pant legs, relaxes into the chair and
resumes speaking about his boss and their company
— that would be Beyoncé, “B,” as Pamon, 49, often
calls her, and Parkwood Entertainment — and the
milestones of the 12 or so preceding months that
have earned them Billboard’s 2019 R&B/Hip-Hop
Power Players Executives of the Year honors.
Parkwood Entertainment began in 2008 as a
video and movie wing for Beyoncé, co-producing
Cadillac Records, the film in which she portrayed
Etta James. But in the last decade, Parkwood has
grown into the business empire and creative content
company behind her greatest role: Queen Bey.
Operating at a leak-proof level of nondisclosure the
federal government can only envy, it has steamroll-
ed traditional industry thought patterns, unveiling
artistic breakthroughs as top-secret surprises, be-
ginning with the 2013 visual album Beyoncé, which
sold 617,000 downloads in just three days, giving
her the best first-week results of her career, and
spawned the Billboard Hot 100 No. 2 hit “Drunk in
Love,” featuring JAY-Z. More recently, the unex-
pected July release of The Lion King: The Gift, the
Beyoncé-produced and -curated companion album
to the Disney remake (in which she voiced the role
of Nala), generated 147.4 million on-demand streams
for the album’s songs.
Pamon arrived at Parkwood in 2015 from
JPMorgan Chase, where he headed the sports and
entertainment marketing division. While still at
JPMorgan, he helped set up the banking giant’s
sponsorship of Beyoncé and JAY-Z’s joint On the
Run stadium tour, which grossed $109.6 million,
making it the No. 8 tour of 2014, according to
Billboard Boxscore. A graduate of Morehouse
College with an MBA from Stanford University,
Pamon worked for the National Football League,
HBO and McKinsey & Co. as well, a background that
gave him a unique understanding of the intersecting
worlds of finance, events and entertainment. He was
a skilled negotiator perfectly positioned to set up
triumphs like Beyoncé’s 2016 Super Bowl halftime
extravaganza and also able to navigate the startup
world as she took stakes in the vegan meal plan
company 22 Days Nutrition and the sports beverage
WTRMLN WTR.
Parkwood has become known for shock-and-
awe productions, foregoing traditional media
promotion — or hype — and using the power of the
unexpected to harness the energy of social media.
Last year, The Carters’ Everything Is Love — Be-
yoncé’s surprise duet album with her billionaire
husband, JAY-Z — dropped out of nowhere during
their On the Run II stadium world tour. (The
album generated 570.4 million on-demand audio
streams; the tour grossed $253.5 million.) This year
brought Homecoming, a two-hour documentary
of Beyoncé’s 2018 Coachella headlining show (aka
Beychella) — part of a production deal with Netflix
said to be worth $60 million. A supporting live
album followed.
Beychella and Homecoming paid homage to
the traditions and marching bands of historically
black colleges and universities, and in doing
so emphasized a key Parkwood principle: self-
determination. Beyoncé, 38, manages herself, runs
her own label and production company, and in
2018 bought back a 50% stake of her athleisure
line Ivy Park from Topshop after Topshop owner
Philip Green faced allegations of racism and sexual
harassment. This year brought the announcement
that Ivy Park will expand with the help of a new
partner with a bigger global footprint: adidas.
Crucially, Beyoncé retains full ownership of the
company under the new agreement.
While Beyoncé was taking some time off —
although clearly not tuning out the business —
Pamon sat down with Billboard to discuss Park-
wood’s ventures during the past 10 months, his
formative years growing up on the South Side of
Chicago and the work ethic and mindset of a boss
that, he says, requires everyone at the company to
“level up” or risk being left behind.
Let’s start by reviewing Beyoncé and Park-
wood’s last 12 months.
I can make it very easy for you. This time last year,
Beyoncé and JAY-Z were in the middle of the On
the Run II Tour — 49 stadium [dates] worldwide.
That tour ended in Johannesburg, South Africa, in
front of 90,000 people at the Global Citizen Festi-
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter
CHAIRMAN/CEO, PARKWOOD ENTERTAINMENT
Steve Pamon
PRESIDENT/COO, PARKWOOD ENTERTAINMENT
Beyoncé with Pamon
on the 2016 Formation
World Tour.
“I chose Steve as my COO
because we share a similar
philosophy about business: You
don’t have to be an asshole to
get things done. It was important
that I found someone with good
character as a human being, with
values whom I could truly trust,
and someone who understands
that my priority for my company
is always creativity and art over
commerce.
Steve is not conditioned by
record labels and music-industry
rules. He is a highly intelligent
man and a great leader, and I’m
proud of the work he has done.
Frankly, Steve is refreshing.”
— BEYONCÉ
EXECUTIVES
of the YEAR
46 BILLBOARD • OCTOBER 19, 2019
&
POWER PLAYERS 2019