Musical Chairs: June 15
TOMMY FAITH TO EP TRIPLE J UNEARTHED
With his past experience in finding new talent, including a management role at Warner Music and most recently Creative Manager at Mushroom Music Publishing, Tommy Faith is taking over as Executive Producer at triple j Unearthed at the end of the month.
Faith farewelled Mushroom, calling it “the best music company in the country for anyone genuinely passionate about Australian music. I honestly can’t speak highly enough about the culture and the people.”
Of his new post at the home of the little green drum, Faith, the creator and writer of the Sound Doctrine blog, remarked: “Australian music, how bout it then?”
ADAM GRANITE DEPARTS SONY AFTER 21 YEARS
After 21 years at Sony Music, Adam Granite is moving on. His roles included General Manager of Epic Records in 2007 and most recently, President, Northern & Eastern Europe and Africa since 2011.
During that time, he signed DJ superstar Martin Garrix to the company and expanded its operations in Africa.
Sony has eliminated its London headquarters, with all heads of operations outside the US reporting to New York.
WARNER BOLSTERS GLOBAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TEAM
To bolster its global business development activity, Warner Music Group hired Jeff Bronikowski as Senior Vice President, Global Business Development/Head of New Technology & Innovation and promoted Tracy Gardner to Senior Vice President, Global Business Development and Strategy.
In April, Michael Drexler and Allan Coye joining the Business Development team as Vice Presidents.
Ole Obermann, EVP, Business Development & Chief Digital Officer pointed out, “The continued expansion of our business development team underscores the important role music is playing in the adoption of new and emerging technologies.”
BERNARD ZUEL EXITING FAIRFAX MEDIA
After 25 years as primarily the music and the arts for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age, Bernard Zuel is finishing up at the end of the month to enter the wonderful world of the freelancer.
Hel started out writing pieces for RAM and Rolling Stone Australia before joining Fairfax in 1992. He will continue posting pieces on his bernardzuel.net website, teaching music journalism within the journalism degree of Macleay College and appearing on the Friday evening music panel show The Right Note.
LIZ ROGERS REJOINS OATEN SOLICITORS
Liz Rogers is back at Sydney-based Brett Oaten Solicitors. She started there some years back before moving on to legal counsel stints at Mushroom Music and Lunatic Entertainment.
RACO HEADS TO MACQUARIE MEDIA
After three years to the month as Melbourne-based Advertising Account Director at the Australian Radio Network, Dani Raco has a new role at Macquarie Media from July. She was previously at Nova/Smooth for five years.
DUNCAN ORD TO LEAD NEW WA DEPT.
WA’s Department of Culture and the Arts (DCA)’s Director General, Duncan Ord will lead the new amalgamation of the DCA with the Local Government function of the Department of Local Government and Communities, the Department of Sport and Recreation and the Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor to form the new Departmentof Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries from July 1.
It is part of the new WA Government’s move to reduce the number of departments from 41 to 25.
NEW EXECUTIVE HIRE FOR UNIVERSAL GLOBE
Universal Globe appointed Ross Sellwood as managing director of its newly launched Soundtrack & Score division.
It works with producers, directors, music supervisors and composers as a services provider for music in film and TV.
Sellwood was music supervisor for RDR Television for Channel 4 factual series Faking It and Rock School before being made Head of Music for RDF in 2006.
NEW CEO FOR ACCESS PR
Access PR has a new CEO in Nichola Patterson, whose 20 years of experience includes being an agency owner and journalist.
Patterson arrives just as Access PR changes its name after ten years to Access-dgc, following a jv with New York agency DiGennaro Communications (DGC).
Access PR co-founder Andrea Kerekes will relocate to NY as EVP and MD at DCG.
BOND EXPANDS SCREEN QLD BOARD
The board of Screen Queensland is joined by Dr Chelsea Bond, an Aboriginal (Munanjahli) Australian and South Sea Islander who has worked as an indigenous health worker and researcher in communities across south-east Queensland and has a strong interest in urban Indigenous health promotion, culture, identity and community development.
ABC MAKES RADFORD REDUNDANT
The ABC has made redundant its Adelaide presenter of 30 years, Leigh Radford. He mostly worked for its rural programs , including presenting The Country Hour for a decade.
PETER ANDRE & WIFE LAND TV ROLE
Gold Coast expatriate singer Peter Andre and his wife Emily have landed a new TV role on ITV’s daily show This Morning. They’ll be presenting travel segments, with the first seeing them return to their honeymoon destination of Santorini in Greece.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR FOR Z-SPACE
Sydney design and production studio ZSpace appointed Glenn Christensen as its new Creative Director. ZSpace has just had a brand relaunch which includes a new VR team.
NEW MUSIC DIRECTOR FOR CO-OPERA
South Australian Dr Joshua van Konkelenberg takes over on July 1 as new Musical Director of Co-Opera. In addition to its presentation of popular 18th and 19th Century operas, he also wants to add some contemporary music theatre pieces.