Virgin Music Group, part of Universal Music Group (UMG), has appointed Syaheed MSBI as vice president of its Africa, Middle East and Asia (AMEA) division. He will oversee all label activities in the region.
MSBI joins Virgin after more than 13 years at Believe, the French independent music company, where he most recently served as Global Artist Success & International Director.
At Believe, he set up the company’s artist services operations in Southeast Asia and Australia and ran its Singapore and Malaysia offices.
AMEA leadership team
MSBI joins an existing regional team that includes:
- Haluk Cerahaman, Turkey
- Amit Sharma, India
- Cindy Gu, Southeast Asia
- Marcus Rowland, China
- Kay Ikazobo, Nigeria
- Nicole Thomas, South Africa
- Anita Zagar, South Korea
Executive comments
MSBI said:
“I’m excited to join Virgin Music Group, where Nat [Pastor], JT [Myers], Michael, and the entire team are building one of the most exciting companies in music today. Virgin is known for its industry-leading service, artist-first ambition, and global reach, and now that’s combined with Downtown’s best-in-class global infrastructure, we are able to ensure entrepreneurial labels and artists in AMEA have the premier solution to find their fans and build lasting success. I’m looking forward to working closely with the incredible labels and artists across the Virgin family, because when artists, labels, and partners win together, the whole industry moves forward. This is especially important for our emerging markets.”
Michael Roe, Virgin Music Group’s managing director of AMEA, said:
“Syaheed has built his reputation as a fierce advocate for artists, first as a founder of his own independent music company and later as a seasoned exec building a robust business in support of independent labels and artists. With his deep connections on the ground across AMEA, we’re looking forward to having him come in to lead and inspire our great team as we continue to build our best-in-class offering for the independent community around the world.”
