Kobalt Music Group founder and CEO Willard Ahdritz has just announced a series of executive moves, including the departure of president and chief revenue officer Richard Sanders. Replacing Sanders, who stepped into the newly created president position in early 2012, will be Laurent Hubert, head of the independent music services org's platform and investments team.
In his expanded role, Hubert will oversee Kobalt's worldwide music publishing and neighboring rights businesses, as well as continue to chair the investment committee for transactions made by Kobalt Music Capital and Kobalt Music Group. Hubert arrived at Kobalt last year after previously working at BMG.
Ahdritz said in a memo to staff that Sanders will remain with Kobalt until late June. "Five years ago, I brought Richard Sanders to Kobalt to help us roll out an aggressive global expansion plan," he said. "Together, we have achieved all of that and more. He has played an instrumental role in getting us to where we are today. As we considered our future plans together, Richard felt that he had accomplished what we had set out to do together and it was now time for him to move on."
Ahdritz also announced several promotions inside Kobalt's senior management. Sixteen-year employee Sas Metcalfe was promoted to chief creative officer; former head of strategy Lonny Olinick is now chief strategy officer; longtime human resources exec Marissa Mencher has been elevated to chief people officer; and Jeannette Perez, who joined Kobalt in 2014, is now president of global synch and brand partnerships. (The staffing moves were first reported by Variety.)
