BMG brings in Marian Wolf to lead North American Publishing

BMG has promoted an executive based in Los Angeles Marian Wolf to lead its publishing activities in North America. With the official title of senior music publishing representative, North America, Wolf now heads the company's largest business unit, with top employees in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville and Canada.

Will report to Thomas Schererthe newly appointed president of global catalog recordings and music publishing, North America.

Wolf is a long-time member of the BMG team. He started at the company in Berlin in 2011, before moving to Los Angeles in 2014 and rising to various roles, including vice president of global author services and China and senior vice president of publishing and chief of staff. During his tenure, the label added several key songwriters to its publishing roster, including George Harrison, Jennifer Lopez, Pitbull, Riot Games, Jessie J, and Dave Gibson, among others.

Wolf also played a key role in BMG's collaborations. In 2016, Wolf developed BMG SoundLab, his songwriting camp, which has worked with partners such as American Idol, She Is The Music and major US labels. The writing camp even once partnered with the United Nations and Holocaust survivor Ben Lesser. Wolf is also spearheading deals between BMG and parent company Bertelsmann, including a partnership with European broadcaster and content major RTL.

The news of Wolf's promotion comes after a major restructuring at BMG. In October, the company laid off about 40 employees, including those in its international marketing, film and theater divisions, to restructure the company. Thomas Cosfeldthe company's newly appointed chief executive, said this was part of its new strategy, called BMG Next, to better position the company for the future.

“With Marian's expertise and success in the US and globally, he is the ideal leader for our North American music publishing business,” says Scherer. “We are confident that he will continue to grow and transform the opportunities and digital services for our customers in the music publishing catalog, as well as front-line songwriter signings.”

“I'm excited to lead our North American publishing teams into this next chapter,” says Wolf. “Publishing continues to be a cornerstone of BMG's business, and I'm excited to continue to innovate the way we serve our songwriters and clients as creative partners.”