Promotions for Alisa Lai and Rebecca Sandel at Universal Music Australia

Universal Music Australia has made a series of changes to its executive team, promoting Alisa Lai to VP of commercial, and Rebecca Sandel to senior VP of legal and business affairs.

Both new roles are effective immediately.

The shuffles are some of the first major announcements from UMA’s new president, Sean Warner.

Sandel (pictured above, right) joined the UMA business affairs team in 2012. The company said over the past decade, she has developed a deep understanding of commercial arrangements across the changing worlds of music rights, consumption and commercialisation.

Sandel also leads the UMA Diversity and Inclusion taskforce and is a member of the ARIA Board.

Lai, meanwhile, joined the company one year earlier, in 2011. Her most recent role was as head of commercial growth and innovation. UMA said she has been integral in structuring new deals and ha led the launch of multiple platform partnerships for Universal Music in Australia.

Warner was full of praise for both women.

“Alisa brings an invaluable level of experience, knowledge, and commercial understanding to the role, and having been part of the UMA commercial team for over 10 years, continues the market leading innovation, creativity, and partnerships we have built, and ensuring we continue to recognise and reward high performance from within our business. Alisa will form part of our leadership team and I am excited to work with her as she transitions to this senior role,” he said.

On the company’s new senior VP of legal and business affairs, he said: “Bec [Sandel] is a well-respected member of UMA’s leadership team. She’s always been a person I’ve been able to work with to achieve genuine solutions. She’s creative, open, transparent, and supportive. It’s great to see strong succession planning in the legal team and I know that Bec will continue to build and develop these skills in the next generation of future leaders and act as a role model for diversity and inclusion across the business in her role as taskforce lead.”

Lai added: “Whilst there is a convergence of features that platforms are introducing, and a blurring of experiences that people seek, people’s time is finite. However, the fundamental emotional connection that can be made between fans and music remains unchanged with music’s innate ability to permeate the tapestry of our daily lives. I’m excited to be leading the commercial team at this time, where we can harness the intersection of creative optimisation, data, technology, and innovation for the benefit of our artists and labels, to help reach wider audiences and propel deeper connections between consumers and music.”