Mark Poston is understood to be out as managing director for the Australian companies of Parlophone and Warner Bros Records after less than a year in the job.
Well-placed sources say Poston has been officially made redundant as part of a wider corporate restructuring, and a few other Parlophone staffers are said to have exited.
Poston, the former EMI Music Australia chairman, returned to the record business earlier this year when he reunited with his former boss, Tony Harlow, Warner Music Australia’s managing director.
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Poston had announced in January 2013 that he would leave EMI while the music major’s sale and integration into Universal neared completion. At the time, he was chairman and senior VP marketing, Australasia at EMI Music and was the youngest head of the major music companies Down Under. He then took a year-long sabbatical before returning to the biz.
Poston is currently in Europe and was unable to discuss the situation. A spokesperson for Warner Music Australia declined to comment.
A widely respected exec with international experience, Poston joined EMI Music Australia in 2000 as label manager, Virgin Records before rising to head of Capitol Records in Australia. In 2005, he relocated to London as director, global marketing and director of EMI U.K. frontline label Angel Music Group/Charisma. He returned in 2008 to lead EMI Music Australia.
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Universal Music Group sold Parlophone’s roster to Warner Music for £487 million (about $765 million) to appease competition authorities. The transaction cleared the path for Universal to press ahead with its acquisition of Parlophone’s former parent, EMI.