RICHARD HINKLEY AND DAVID ROWE APPOINTED JOINT MANAGING DIRECTORS OF UNIVERSAL MUSIC CATALOGUE

24 July 2014 - Press release

Universal Music UK Chairman David Joseph has announced the promotion of Richard Hinkley and David Rowe to joint managing directors of Universal Music Catalogue.

The pair are stepping up from joint general managers on September 1^st to take over the division as it is enjoys its best year ever with the double-platinum Frozen soundtrack and gold-selling album from Wilko Johnson and Roger Daltrey leading a charge of successful releases.

Richard Hinkley joined Universal as General Manager, Catalogue in July 2010 and has overseen campaigns for The Beatles, Elton John, Abba, Paul McCartney, The Kinks and The Who among many others. He also worked closely with LOCOG on the release of music from the London 2012 Olympic Games.

David Rowe joined the team in July 2013 after almost 10 years at EMI where as VP, Global Campaign he ran catalogue campaigns including Electrospective and Prog Rocks and oversaw the global marketing of priorities such as Disney's High School Musical.  His recent initiatives for UMC have included Sounds Like Nashville, Nation’s Favourite Motown and Thrashback.

The promotion of Hinkley and Rowe follows the decision of current MD Karen Simmonds to move on very literally to pastures new.

Simmonds is leaving the music industry after a stellar career the last 17 years of which have been spent at Universal Music. 

David Joseph says, “Anyone who knows Karen knows that music is not her only passion and it isn’t the biggest surprise that the wilds of western Wales have lured her away from us. Karen has made an immeasurable contribution to our business and we will miss her greatly. Karen built an exceptional team at UMC and we are fortunate that she is handing over to two such able successors as Richard Hinkley and David Rowe.”

Simmonds started her career at HMV, Mute and Geffen before spending 11 years at Polydor. There, as general manager of marketing, she oversaw million-selling campaigns for artists including Black Eyed Peas, Snow Patrol, Nelly Furtado, Gwen Stefani, Enrique Iglesias, Limp Bizkit and Lady Gaga.  Since becoming MD of Universal Music Catalogue in 2010, Simmonds has been the architect of a transformation of the division as the march of streaming drives the importance of catalogue. UMC recently became the first UK record company to set up a dedicated streaming curation team.

Simmonds says: “I am sad to leave behind so many wonderful people, particularly at such an exciting time for the business. But equally, I’m looking forward to my new life which for the first time in many years won’t be dictated by a release schedule!”