Following its acquisition by Sony, AWAL has set its U.K. executive leadership team with Matt Riley as MD. Victoria Needs and Sam Potts have been promoted to senior vice president.

In his new role, Riley will expand his current oversight as Head of A&R, working closely with AWAL President Paul Hitchman and AWAL CEO Lonny Olinick to sign new artists and develop the global roster. Based in London, Riley will report to Hitchman.

Since joining AWAL in 2014, Riley has been responsible for signing artists that have reached more than 1b streams, including Bruno Major, Rex Orange County and Tom Misch. Additionally, he’s supported the development of global artists Eloise, Lovejoy, MorMor, Shay Lia and The Wombats.

As SVP, Needs will add the U.K. market to her existing international marketing remit for AWAL, continuing to drive all global artist campaigns and releases. Potts will continue to work with the executive leadership team to maximize audience development and growth strategies for AWAL artists across digital and traditional media.

Needs has served as VP of International Marketing for AWAL since 2020, supporting campaign launches for artists such as JVKE, Jungle, girl in red and Lizzy McAlpine.

Potts joined AWAL in 2019, as VP of Promotion, overseeing the company’s U.K. and international digital accounts team, driving promotional strategy with streaming platforms, as well as overseeing U.K. radio and TV promotion strategy for AWAL artists.

“AWAL’s mission is to be the world’s best artist development company and, by creating a new leadership team for the U.K. that spans A&R, marketing and promotion, we have all of the skills and focus to deliver on that aim for U.K. artists,” Hitchman said.

“Matt, Victoria and Sam have all proven themselves as market leaders in their respective fields and have highly complementary skills. The combination will be an unstoppable force as we look to take the AWAL business to the next level in the U.K.”