WOMEN
ON THE WAY

Sony is the latest major in the U.K. to promote a female exec to a leadership position with Sarah Thwaites named Head of its classical imprint Masterworks UK. There’s been a fair few conversations about the lack of ladies in senior roles in the British music business in recent years, and, according to this recap, it seems the times they are a’changin.

Thwaites has been promoted from her previous position of Marketing Manager after five years at Sony. She succeeds Liam Toner who is moving onto a new role at Sony Masterworks International.

Elsewhere at Sony U.K., while the label has yet to appoint a female President for its imprints, there are a few names in the pipeline. At Ministry of Sound, Amy Wheatley was named GM last July, while Stacey Tang was appointed co-MD alongside Manish Arora at Columbia in November. Over at Syco, Anya Jones was named Head of A&R following the departure of Sonny Takhar and promotion of now label MD Tyler Brown at the end of 2016.

At UMG U.K., the major has two female Presidents in Jo Charrington, who was upped to co-President of Capitol in September, and Rebecca Allen, who was named President of Decca Records Group last May. Over at Island, Annie Christensen was promoted to A&R Director toward the end of last year, and Claire Mas was named Head of Digital in October.
Finally, at Warner U.K., which has also yet to appoint a female President, Mel Fox was promoted Chief Transformation Officer in September. More recently, Emmy Lovell was promoted to SVP of Digital and marketing exec Jennifer Ivory was named General Manager of Warner Bros. earlier this month.

The spate of promotions arrive as new Government legislation rules that U.K. companies with 250 employees and over will have to publish their gender pay gap figures—defined as the difference between the average earnings of men and women—by April this year. Will that motivate music companies to employ, promote and retain a more diverse workforce? In these times, Lord knows we need it.