Sony Music Entertainment U.K. has announced the appointment of Philippe Ascoli to the role of senior A&R director, Columbia Records.
Effective Sept. 7, Ascoli assumes the role from Nick Hugget — who has held the post for the last two years — and reports directly to Columbia managing director Mike Smith.
“I am thrilled to be able to welcome Philippe to be a part of the label,” said Smith in a statement. “He is one of the rare and great music men in the industry that I’ve always wanted to work with and I am looking forward to him taking Columbia’s talent roster to the next level.”
Ascoli added: “I am very happy to be joining Mike and his team at Columbia Records. To me the Columbia label has always represented one of the greatest legacies in A&R culture and I am proud to be here as part of the same label as many of my musical heroes.”
Most recently, he held simultaneous positions as managing director of Virgin France and president of Source etc, a label he founded in 2005 upon returning to France that extended the Source brand from its French and U.K. roots. Collectively, the Source family of labels has signed acts including Air, Phoenix, Turin Brakes, Kings of Convenience and Yelle.
Prior to this, he spent three years as managing director of Virgin U.K., where he was involved in signing Kelis, the Thrills, the Kooks and Jamie T, as well as bringing the Relentless label (Joss Stone, KT Tunstall) to the EMI group.
