22
DENNIS KOOKER, 51
President of global digital business and U.S. sales, Sony Music Entertainment
KEVIN KELLEHER, 60
COO, SME
JULIE SWIDLER, 60
Executive vp business affairs/general counsel, SME
BOOSTED STREAMING REVENUE 20 PERCENT: SME’s business team spent 2018 resurrecting the Arista label and boosting streaming revenue by 20 percent through its fiscal second quarter (which ended Sept. 30). Kelleher drove initiatives that increased global profits 11 percent for that period, and under Kooker, digital revenue for recorded music (including Sony Music Japan) also was up 11 percent — to $1.2 billion. Swidler, who worked on the formula to distribute some of the label’s $750 million Spotify stock windfall to artists, says the future is “being open to new ways of distribution so artists can find what they want within the Sony system.”
