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Courtesy WMG
Val Blavatnik
Business News
Val Blavatnik to Oversee Warner Music Canada in New Role at Warner Music Group
Blavatnik will oversee Warner Music Canada as managing director of Warner Music North America, U.K. and Corporate Development at WMG. As part of a slew of executive announcements, Simon Robson will be leaving the company, while Alejandro Duque takes the top international role.
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Val Blavatnik, the 28-year-old son of Warner Music Group majority owner and vice chairman Len Blavatnik, has been named managing director of Warner Music North America, U.K. and Corporate Development at the Warner Music Group, the company announced Friday (Sept. 25). In his new role the younger Blavatnik, who has held several roles at the company in recent years, and has been a board member since 2023, expects to “unify and drive business and operational strategy across these markets while guiding the company’s investment strategy to support growth,” according to a press release.
The Blavatnik announcement is part of a flurry of new executive announcements that CEO Robert Kyncl made this morning. In addition, Atlantic Music Group chairman/CEO Elliot Grainge will take on ADA in the U.S. as its new chairman, while Alejandro Duque, who has held the dual roles of president of Warner Latin and president of ADA since last July, has been named president of Warner Music International, adding Asia-Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa under his oversight. (Duque will continue to oversee ADA outside the U.S.) Zach Friedman, currently COO at Atlantic Music Group, will add the title of vice chair of ADA U.S. to his resume.
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That means that Simon Robson, who has been president of EMEA recorded music since last September, and has spent almost 30 years in senior international roles at Warner Music, will be leaving the company. Replacing him in that role will be Guillermo Gonzalez, who has spent the past six years as president of Warner Music Iberia; Andrés Rothschild will take over Iberian operations. “We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Simon Robson for his dedicated service, operational excellence and trusted leadership while expanding WMG’s global footprint over his remarkable tenure, and wish him the very best in his next endeavors,” Kyncl said in a statement about Robson’s exit.
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Finally, Aaron Bay-Schuck has been affirmed as the sole chairman/CEO of Warner Records, two months after co-chair/COO Tom Corson was elevated to COO of the Warner Music Group. Bay-Schuck has co-led the label since 2018, and will continue as the sole chief moving forward.
“To build upon our successful year in which we delivered on all three strategic priorities to grow market share, increase the value of music and increase our efficiency, these frontline executive changes enhance our best-in-class leadership team with diverse skill sets to execute on the next chapter of WMG’s growth,” Kyncl said in a statement about the slew of moves. “Elliot, Aaron, Alejandro and Guillermo are exceptional, dynamic and proven leaders who have transformed their domains, and elevating them allows us to further scale their success. I’m also excited to welcome Val to the executive team, where his operational and strategic focus will help us build our momentum across key markets.”
Val Blavatnik had been widely expected to land in the WMG leadership team as his influence at the company grew over the past few years. He got his start in the music business as an artist manager in 2016, and began working at WMG in 2023, both as a board member and as senior director of business development at Warner Chappell Music. Prior to that, he spent two years on the investment team at LionTree, and as of 2024 has held the role of special advisor to Warner Music Group CEO Kyncl, while he finished his studies at Harvard Business School, from which he graduated this past spring.
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Over the past few years, he’s had a hand in the acquisition of 10K Projects, which brought current Atlantic Music Group chairman/CEO Grainge into the WMG fold; and the subsequent restructuring that led to Grainge being appointed to that role. He’s also had a hand in the negotiations for Zach Bryan’s deal with Warner Records last year and worked on WMG’s AI development and distribution plans, including their acquisition of distro company Revelator earlier this year.
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“At Warner, our guiding principle is getting compensation and safeguards for artists and songwriters, [and] we’re only doing deals with companies that commit to our principles,” he told Billboard in January about the company’s AI strategy. “The music business, in my view, has always been late to innovate, and I think we have this incredible opportunity here to at least be on time and not fight innovation.”
Len Blavatnik, who is the founder of Access Industries, purchased WMG in 2011, and took the company public in 2020. In 2022, Kyncl took over for longtime CEO Stephen Cooper atop the company, and instituted a series of layoffs and restructuring with the aim of saving hundreds of millions of dollars in costs and better positioning the company for a more tech-centered future. The company has also cycled through four CFOs in three years, and two months ago promoted Warner Records co-chair/COO Corson to be COO of all of WMG, following the exit of the last CFO/COO, Armin Zerza. Additionally, Warner Chappell co-chair/COO Carianne Marshall is exiting the company after an announcement earlier this week, part of what was characterized as a move away from the co-chair executive model. Guy Moot is now sole chair/CEO at the publisher.
Grainge, the son of Universal Music Group chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge, has reorganized his Atlantic division into several branches, with Atlantic Records, 300 Entertainment and 10K Projects all reporting to him. He had also long exerted influence over ADA, as 10K itself, which Grainge founded as an indie, had been cutting similar distribution-type deals prior to its acquisition by WMG. His new role gives him oversight of the U.S. distribution channel at the third-largest major.
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In 2025, following Grainge’s appointment at Atlantic and Val Blavatnik’s own ascension in influence in the company, Billboard asked the rising exec if there was a generational changing of the guard that needed to happen. “The music business should constantly evolve and innovate, like any other successful business,” Blavatnik said at the time. “It’s not so much about a generational shift, but more about having executives with bold, fresh ideas and the ambition to deliver outstanding results.”
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