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Billboard’s 2022 40 Under 40Revealed
Billboard's 40 Under 40 list for 2022 is revealed, with managers, marketing and merch leaders, and Web3 pioneers all among the honorees.

Managers To Watch: The Rising Execs Helping Baby Keem, Tems, Remi Wolf & More

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “The concept of digital fashion and how that space is evolving. There is so much opportunity for creativity, individualism and innovation all while maintaining an eco-friendly impact through utilizing these new digital fashion apps. Plus, it’s a ripe medium for brand partnership opportunities.”

Toby Andrews
President, Astralwerks

While Andrews, who manages all day-to-day aspects of the Capitol Music Group imprint, has overseen the expansion of Astralwerks Asia and recently helped launch Fabled Records — a new China-based label created in partnership with Live Nation — the 32-year-old executive says, “none of this can overshadow what we do every day at the company.” In March, Astralwerks released The Silence in Between, the third studio album by Bob Moses, which Andrews describes as “a true honor,” given that he was the electronic duo’s
first manager.

Andrew Asare
Senior director of streaming (urban), Warner Records

Paraphrasing hip-hop fave Gunna, Asare says his daily version of “pushin’ P” is “prayer, pitch notes and pushing “send” on emails to platforms for placement on playlists and beyond.” The 34-year-old Ghanaian’s work proved instrumental in Saweetie’s rise from 2019 Billboard Hot 100 debutante with “My Type” to two-time 2022 Grammy Award nominee. And his promotion of rapper Isaiah Rashad’s The House Is Burning fueled its No. 7 debut on the Billboard 200, where it charted for six weeks. When he’s not busy expanding an artist’s reach, Asare supports his alma mater Howard University through Warner Music Group’s mentorship program.

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Grant scholarships to two students who wish to pursue careers on the business side of music. And run two New York City Marathons.”

Ryan Beuschel
VP of A&R strategy, Warner Chappell Music

Beuschel, 38, says he spends “a lot of time with my songwriters discussing strategy as trends change in the overall music landscape as well as the country market,” in which he specializes. His fostering of singer-songwriter and friend Randy Montana’s career led to the “Beer Never Broke My Heart” co-writer landing his first Country Music Association Triple Play Award in May — a highlight of the past year, because “Randy and I started our careers together at Universal Music Group,” Beuschel says. Other top notes include adding Brett Eldredge, Riley Green, Hailey Whitters, Priscilla Block, Justin Lynch and Warren Zeiders to Warner Chappell’s roster.

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “See Michigan football win a national championship.”

Alexis Brown
Artist manager (Adele), September Management

As the point person for one of the biggest pop stars in the world, Brown, 28, played an instrumental role in the release of Adele’s 30, the top-selling album of 2021, and in a promotional and marketing campaign that included NBC and CBS TV specials; the latter drew more than 12 million viewers, becoming the second most-watched televised entertainment special of that year, according to Nielsen. The Syracuse University graduate also guides the careers of Grammy-winning mix engineer Tom Elmhirst (“Rolling in the Deep”) and emerging talents Orion Sun and MorMor.

Darcy Brown
Head of music merchandise, Amazon Music

Last year, Brown, 35, worked closely with Kanye West and Balenciaga head designer Demna on limited-edition merchandise for the Amazon Music-hosted #FreeLarryHoover benefit. “That collection was indicative of how Amazon Music is transforming artist merchandise experiences beyond the typical band T-shirt,” says Brown, who employed a similar strategy around livestreams for the 2022 Dreamville Festival and album release events for The Weeknd and Tyler, The Creator. “The way we listen to music has changed with new technology, but the merch booth hasn’t been reinvented for decades,” says Brown.

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Go to a concert with the team I built virtually at the start of the pandemic — we are due for an outing.”

Laura Carter
Senior vp/head of urban marketing, Interscope Records

Leading a 10-member team that shares her “passion for artist development,” Carter supervised marketing campaigns for releases from J. Cole, Summer Walker and Moneybagg Yo, as well as a second posthumous Juice WRLD album — all contributing to Interscope’s 10.08% overall market share in 2021. As the industry readjusts back to pre-pandemic marketing opportunities, Carter says, “It’s exciting to watch touring and events start to thrive again, and for fans to get a piece of the artist they’ve been missing.”

Briana Cheng
A&R, 4AD; founder, b4

Cheng landed at 4AD in 2018 as an A&R executive, signing Velvet Negroni, Tkay Maidza, Erika de Casier and HAWA to the British label during her four-year-plus tenure. Cheng is also founder of b4, a label and management company, and notes that all the acts she manages — including 27Delly, Tama Gucci and Mia Carucci — “are people of color and/or queer and huge advocates for their community and culture outside of making forward-thinking, genreless music.”

Thomas Coesfeld
CFO, BMG

Since joining BMG in April 2021, Coesfeld has helped lead its biggest acquisition program in nearly a decade — boosted by a $1 billion partnership with KKR. Over the past year, BMG has picked up catalogs from Tina Turner, ZZ Top and Mötley Crüe, among others, and is projecting more than $1 billion in annual revenue over the next three years. “The market has turned our way,” says the 32-year-old executive, who hails from Germany. “It has become clear that the service-orientated agenda we pioneered similarly resonates with the new financial investors entering the field of music.”

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Finally see The Rolling Stones play live.”

Michele Cranford
Senior vp of digital marketing, Atlantic Records

Cranford, 38, oversees a team of 30 “digital marketers, social platform experts, and gaming and Web3 specialists” that, she says, creates “cutting-edge digital lifestyle and tastemaker marketing campaigns across all major social digital platforms.” Her team has both helped break new acts and contributed to long-term artist development, and she notes that her division is increasingly focused on short-form content, which thrives on TikTok and has increasing traction on YouTube. “I love that we are connecting with fan audiences earlier, ahead of releases, to build excitement,” she says.

Patch Culbertson
Senior vp/GM, Big Loud Records

Promoted to senior vp/GM in 2021, Culbertson, 36, helped curate Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album, which was the most popular album of last year. Wallen’s success — alongside that of labelmates Jake Owen and Chris Lane — earned Big Loud the top position on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Label 2021 year-end chart. Culbertson, whose role spans A&R, data analytics and strategy, is known as “Stat Daddy” at Big Loud, and understandably so: The label was earning 5 million on-demand audio streams a week when he came aboard in 2017. That number is now 100 million per week.

Sophia Dilley
Senior vp of film/TV development and production, Concord Originals

“I am in awe at the sophisticated level of storytelling that is being produced right now,” says 33-year-old Dilley, who last year launched Concord’s new division for developing projects onstage and onscreen, utilizing its artists and music and theatrical catalogs. Her development slate includes three projects mining the works of Rodgers & Hammerstein; documentaries on Billy Preston and Shari Lewis and Lambchop; and a genre film using blues legend Robert Johnson’s catalog. Dilley says she’s also excited about working with Skydance TV and Jennifer Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions to adapt musicals for the screen based on Concord’s own legacy works.

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “Music-driven films like CODA.”

Jacob Fowler
Chief technology officer, The Orchard

In the increasingly fast-paced digital-first world, Fowler has helped The Orchard build out its suite of products for its artists and labels. A partnership with payment service Wise allows for faster payouts across countries and currencies, and OrchardGo is a new analytics-focused mobile app. But Fowler says he is most proud of building “a more inclusive and diverse team. The results always take longer than you hope for, but we are now in a place we can be proud of, especially as we look toward the future.”

Mandy Gabriel
VP of film, TV and advertising, Universal Music Publishing Group

Gabriel, 37, helped place UMPG synchs with Apple, Peloton, Toyota, Campbell’s Soup and Taco Bell over the past year. She has also worked on internal synch-education sessions called Office Hours to help songwriters keep up to date on synch trends and the intersection of music and media. “A large part of my job is thinking outside the box to make interesting connections that lead to exciting and creative opportunities,” says the eight-year company veteran, who previously worked at Kobalt — “the best thing to happen to me,” she says.

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Be proficient enough in woodworking to build a piece of furniture from scratch for my home.”

Joe Gallo
Senior vp/head of sales, Columbia Records

In 2021, Columbia held the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 for 33 weeks thanks to nine different songs, including Polo G’s “Rapstar” and The Kid LAROI’s Justin Bieber-assisted “Stay.” Gallo, 33, says “the determination within the label to achieve such a feat was contagious,” and his team worked alongside departments throughout the company “to craft each artist’s release timing and strategy.” He executed campaigns with individually tailored strategies to maximize consumption, with help from a unit on his team dedicated to data analysis across new releases at the label.

Javier González
Owner/CEO, Tamarindo Rekordsz

Ten years ago, González was doing oil changes at an Acura dealer while pursuing songwriting and working on launching his regional Mexican label, Tamarindo Rekordsz. Now 35, with signings like Carin León — who has 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify and has guested on a remix of Walker Hayes’ country hit “Fancy Like” — the indie label is going global. “In today’s landscape, it’s not just Mexico and the U.S. interested in Mexican artists,” he says. “Latin American and European countries are listening, too.”

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “Today’s listeners are incredibly open to music of all kinds. It has made rules and limits a thing of the past, which is exciting for those of us behind the scenes because it gives us more leeway in how we can approach song production. I can’t wait to see how we can develop new sounds and styles through artistic experimentation.”

Matt Graham
Co-founding managing partner, Range Media Partners

Graham, 38, considers himself a “multihyphenate,” with good reason. As one of the architects of Range’s 360 approach to management, the company secured a label partnership with Capitol Music Group and Virgin Music Label & Artist Services in 2021; helped found Web3 platform Classick Club in early 2020; and secured film, TV and branding opportunities for clients Jack Harlow, Wale, Justin Tranter and Midland. Range is also preparing to launch a publishing division, but Graham says he’s most thrilled with the return of touring, calling it “the lifeblood of our business.”

Oscar Guitián Jr.
GM, WK Records

Guitián — who learned the music biz working at his father’s independent label — helped make Walter Kolm’s 2-year-old WK Records one of Billboard’s top 10 Latin labels of 2021, thanks to global hits like “Fiel” by Los Legendarios, Wisin and Jhay Cortez. Guitián, 32, spends his days “looking for viral songs and artists to sign, negotiating deals with managers/attorneys and helping grow the business overall.” He is eyeing Spain as the next generator of Latin hits and adds that “the frequency of how quickly music is coming out and the levels of deals being made” keeps things exciting.

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Own a sports team, either basketball or soccer.”

Tiara Hargrave
VP/GM, Alamo

Working alongside Alamo founder/CEO Todd Moscowitz, Hargrave, 36, served as a key player in helping Lil Durk dominate “the charts and culture,” as she proudly puts it. Durk secured his first Billboard 200 No. 1 album (7220) last March after Alamo aided in pushing his 2021 release, The Voice, to platinum status. If she wasn’t busy building superstars, Hargrave says she might have been a sociologist. “I just might still do it,” she quips. “We deal with so many different types of people, it might be helpful.”

Nick Jarjour
Global head of song management, Hipgnosis Songs Management; artist manager (Starrah, Trinidad Cardona)

With Hipgnosis continuing to snap up classic song catalogs, Jarjour, 36, deals with billions of dollars in song assets on a global scale. On the management side, R&B singer Trinidad Cardona signed to Def Jam, while Jarjour and client Starrah co-founded publishing venture 3:02 Music Group, negotiating partnership terms with Pulse Music Group. He calls producer-songwriter Starrah “a trailblazer of creating more representation and equality within the music industry,” adding that the five businesses he has invested in this year “have been female-founded, and the data indicates female founders exit 25% faster and at higher valuations than their male counterparts.”

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “See a songwriter of the year Grammy Award.”

Alex Kamins
Senior vp of new business and ventures, Warner Music Group

Kamins leads the WMG team that oversees Web3 strategy and venture-capital investing. Last March brought a partnership with STYNGR, which helps gaming companies license tracks from the label’s catalog; in June came a partnership with Songclip, which makes searching for music clips easier on social media. Kamins also works with gaming giant Roblox, in which WMG invested eight figures last year; WMG’s twenty one pilots performed a virtual concert on the platform that drew 13 million views last September. “We are on the verge of a new golden age in the music industry,” says Kamins, 37, referring to the emerging metaverse and Web3 ventures that “allow artists to better incentivize their superfans.”

Jennifer Kirell
Senior vp of catalog and retail marketing, AWAL

For Kirell, 32, the many facets of her job boil down to a singular goal: “help create and deepen fan relationships with an artist and their existing body of work.” Sometimes, that means overseeing global marketing campaigns for acts like Chvrches, Rex Orange County and Dashboard Confessional. Other times, it means leading the catalog strategy that turned AURORA’s 2015 single “Runaway” into a TikTok sensation and No. 1 trend on Instagram Reels more than five years after its release.

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “Music nano-communities. We are rapidly shifting away from an entertainment monoculture, and music fans are finding one another through all kinds of unconventional online and [in-real-life] means, building networks around very niche common interests. It makes marketing more challenging but also more rewarding.”

Thomas Krottinger
VP of creative, Sony Music Publishing

Krottinger’s massive success with Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album, Sour, was a few years in the making. He heard one of Rodrigo’s demos, “All I Want,” in 2019; met her a year later; and vividly remembers “calling my boss, gushing about how I had to work with her.” He and senior vp/head of West Coast A&R Jennifer Knoepfle also found success in 2021 with pop artist-songwriter Salem Ilese, who broke through with her own “Mad at Disney” and contributed to Bella Poarch’s “Build a B-tch.” Krottinger, 32, hopes the future of the business brings more respect to “young female music fans,” noting, “They are a driving force in our culture and should be taken seriously.”

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Be like Melissa McCarthy at the end of Bridesmaids and have so many golden retrievers people think I have a problem.”

Cory Litwin
Executive vp, Hallwood Media

As Hallwood Media’s executive vp, Litwin, 36, is involved in all levels of A&R, marketing and operations at the producer/songwriter management company. He also manages his own roster, which includes Murda Beatz (who has produced for Cardi B, Doja Cat, Drake and Migos) and Quay Global (Lil Baby). Over the last year, Litwin had a hand in three No. 1 songs and eight No. 1 albums and launched the herbal mood-booster Psychedelic Water, while he and his wife welcomed their first child. He says Hallwood’s “unofficial mission statement” — and the thing that drives him — is providing clients the ability “to make money making music.”

Katie McCartney
GM, Monument Records

Under the leadership of McCartney, 36, country singer-songwriter Walker Hayes became a crossover star with his No. 3 Billboard Hot 100 smash, “Fancy Like,” and its follow-up, “AA.” The success of the former song — sparked by Hayes’ DIY TikTok dance video with his daughter going viral — “catapulted Monument to a whole new level,” she says. The song gave the 5-year-old label its first No. 1 hit (on four Billboard country charts), spawned a national Applebee’s ad campaign and was a social media phenomenon. “It is something our team has been preparing for for years. And it’s unreal to see the magic work.”

Andrew McInnes
Co-founder/CEO, TMWRK

This year, McInnes, 38, worked with star client Diplo to finalize the sale of the producer’s catalog — a project that has been in the planning stages for over a decade and which utilized the resources of TMWRK’s full team. (Details of the sale were not disclosed.) “At TMWRK, all 23 of us view our artists as entrepreneurs and business partners,” says McInnes. “The goal may be a tour deal, artist-owned label, publishing company, film project, comic book deal, investment strategy — we provide advice and creative ideas to build our clients’ businesses.”

Josh Mendez
Co-founder/COO, RichMusic

Mendez has grown his Miami-based indie label to 35 employees, renewed the contracts of up-and-coming Panamanian urban star Sech and producer Dímelo Flow, and signed its first female act, paopao. RichMusic also launched a series of philanthropic initiatives including local youth empowerment through music education — with partner the Miami Music Project — and equity for women in entertainment. The 33-year-old executive, who calls himself a “professional dreamer,” says, “Every step at RichMusic has been intentional and prepped us to scale up,” adding that the label is focused on TikTok growth, artificial intelligence, non-fungible tokens and the metaverse.

Simone Mitchell
President, Quality Control Music, Solid Foundation Management

As the head of City Girls’ label, Mitchell, 32, who was promoted to her current position in October, is heavily involved in the rap duo’s brand development and ran point on the pair’s first Coachella performance in April, “a major win for our team and a pivotal moment in their career,” she says. She also manages the careers of Quality Control artists Layton Greene and Lakeyah at Solid Foundation. As one of a growing number of women promoted to high-ranking positions in the industry, Mitchell says, “The flowers are nice, but the recognition highlights that women are a powerful force that must be reckoned with.”

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “The metaverse. I’m truly excited to see how this new form of technology can create a completely different lane for the music industry, such as concert experiences from home [and] fan interactions, as well as the overall aspect of NFTs. This will give people a completely different viewpoint on music.”

Hannah Montgomery Bay-Schuck
A&R, Prescription Songs

Montgomery Bay-Schuck, 30, describes herself as a “professional cheerleader, coach and champion” for her songwriters, and last year, she had a lot to cheer about. As A&R executive to five of the seven songwriters on Saweetie and Doja Cat’s smash “Best Friend” as well as to talents like Lauren LaRue — who has penned songs for Sam Hunt, Lil Yachty and Illenium — she has helped her roster reach the top of the charts in nearly every genre.

The Next Big Thing My Colleagues Should Get Hip To Is…: “Paying writers songwriting fees and giving them points on records.”

Zack Morgenroth
Partner, Lighthouse Management & Media

Though he is now the co-manager of superstar multihyphenates Olivia Rodrigo and Selena Gomez, Morgenroth, 35, says with a laugh that he “didn’t even know this was a job” growing up.

That changed his sophomore year at the University of Southern California when he landed an internship at a management company and realized “there’s a world out there that me in high school could have never thought about.”

His next internship, at Brillstein Entertainment Partners, proved even more fruitful. It was there he met Aleen Keshishian, founder of Lighthouse Management & Media, where Morgenroth joined as a partner at the company’s inception in 2016. Having known Keshishian for nearly 15 years, he says, “gives us such a shorthand when we’re working together on clients,” says Morgenroth. “It’s like yin and yang — and you get the brain power of two people.”

Keshishian says Morgenroth has evolved “into one of the most talented and visionary artist reps I’ve ever seen,” adding, “his mastery of all of the verticals necessary to create business for our clients is truly rare.”

Lighthouse’s A-list roster of talent is spread across music, TV, film, beauty and other sectors — and a major selling point for a young ascendant artist like Rodrigo, who signed with Lighthouse in February and is eager to do it all. Morgenroth describes the process of getting to know a new client as “incredibly delicate,” adding that the start of any successful management relationship comes down to asking plenty of questions: “It’s big-picture things to things as small as what they are allergic to.”

Rodrigo, of course, got her start on the Disney+ show High School Musical: The Musical: The Series; broke a slew of chart records with her 2021 debut single, “drivers license”; and became a superstar with first album Sour, scoring seven Grammy nominations. In March, she was named Billboard’s Woman of the Year, then in April scooped up three of those Grammys and announced a partnership with Glossier as the first celebrity ambassador of the direct-to-consumer makeup brand.

Morgenroth says it’s important to have “the ability to do all these different things and have expertise in different [areas] and have a track record in working with artists in different [lanes].” It’s exciting to him as well. He says management feels “much more entrepreneurial than ever,” adding that it is “incredibly rewarding to be able to connect the dots with clients and be able to do multiple things.” Recent cross-field victories include collaborating with John Janick and Justin Lubliner at Interscope and The Darkroom, respectively, to executive produce the 2021 Apple TV+ documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry (along with Eilish’s co-managers, Danny Rukasin and Brandon Goodman); and later that year, watching Gomez earn her first Grammy nomination for her first Latin album, Revelación.

He says a key part of the Lighthouse pitch is to always think long term — as far ahead as “what are the goals for, hopefully, 20 to 30 years from now?”

“Especially when you have a young client, you want to be thinking about a career,” he continues. “You want to pace yourself and only do things that feel organic to the client and what they want to accomplish.”

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Have a day off.”

Robby Morris
Creative director/senior director of creative and strategy, Secretly Group

Morris, 36, notched several big wins overseeing marketing and strategy for Secretly’s labels last year, including a pair of Grammy nominations for Japanese Breakfast and a top five album for Mitski on the Billboard 200. As the pandemic appears to recede, he’s eager to apply lessons learned during lockdown to a less restrictive 2022. He says, “There’s no set template to setting an artist up for success, but we have a lot more tools to help maximize their creativity than we did three years ago.”

Samantha Robinson
VP of neighboring rights, Songtradr

Robinson, 38, manages neighboring rights throughout the world for Songtradr, with a focus on challenging markets like Latin America, where she says the company has been one of the most successful U.S.-based collection agencies for masters owners in that region over the past year. Robinson, who works with artists and labels to carve out and untangle their rights, says she is excited by Latin America’s growth in the music sector and how it is “becoming one of the most impactful regions in neighboring rights and audiovisual as a whole.”

Stephanie Shim
Head of East Coast label relations, YouTube

Over the last year, Shim, 37, played a critical role in the global launches of two major artist campaigns through YouTube Shorts: BTS’ #PermissionToDance challenge, followed by Ed Sheeran’s #SheeranShorts promotion. The activations generated almost 9 million and more than 400 million views, respectively. In addition to facilitating massive engagement for both artists, Shim helped with the platform’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month campaign, a project Shim says she’s “particularly proud of and something I am looking forward to expanding upon this year.”

Seon Jeong Shin
Training and Development (T&D) business department leader, HYBE

Shin, 38, helped advance a system for training future artists on the South Korean K-pop giant’s labels, including BigHit Music, Source Music, PLEDIS Entertainment and ADOR. The T&D system, which HYBE has also initiated in Japan (where Shin is GM for that market’s T&D department), has been used to develop K-pop stars like BTS, Tomorrow x Together and ENHYPEN. Shin says, “I feel like understanding the evolving demands of the public and the fans is the most important trend for people in this business.”

Before I Turn 40, I Want To…: “Learn how to swim.”

Matt Signore
COO, 300 Entertainment

Ten years ago, Signore, 32, was starting his first job in the music industry. Today, he speeds the plough when it comes to 300’s business operations and strategies, and was a key part of the team that orchestrated the company’s $400 million sale to Warner Music Group in December and its subsequent integration into the major. The executive, who became a first-time father in June 2021, says he’s a proponent of “providing a clear value proposition to employees with empathetic resources and programs for them.”

Jen Tanner 
VP of brand partnerships, RCA Records

Tanner, 32, unlocks the affinities of RCA artists by digging into their hobbies and dreams, then connects those interests to the music strategies of agencies and brands. She helped spearhead Doja Cat’s deals with Postmates and Girls Who Code, as well as a labelwide partnership with Essentia Water, which included rising pop artist Tate McRae starring in a campaign alongside NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes. Tanner says she “would love to do more partnerships like this that tap into the breadth and diversity of the roster.”

La Mar C. Taylor
Co-founder, XO, HXOUSE

Taylor, who describes his role as “a hybrid of janitor, firefighter and therapist,” helped shape the 2021 Super Bowl halftime performance of The Weeknd — his co-founder and friend since high school — along with the creative vision and marketing for the pop superstar’s 2022 album, Dawn FM. Having continued “breaking boundaries while in the middle of a pandemic” through the rollout of The Weeknd’s record-setting release After Hours and XO’s Toronto-based creative incubator, HXOUSE, Taylor is working on plans for The Weeknd’s global ambassadorship with the UN World Food Programme.

Vic Trubowitch
Head of artist and label partnerships, North America, Spotify

A decade ago, Trubowitch, 35, was trying to get Hype Machine blogs to embed MP3s from artists signed to Vagrant Records. These days, he oversees the team that helps acts like Olivia Rodrigo and Silk Sonic “tell their stories” to Spotify’s 180 million subscribers. The mission is similar — connect artists with new listeners — but the medium keeps advancing. Trubowitch says he’s excited about Spotify Live, which streams concerts on the platform, and is testing an initiative “where artists can interact directly with their biggest fans” in “live audio rooms.”

Charles Wadelington
Manager of public policy and government relations, Universal Music Group

From his vantage point as an advocate for UMG’s business objectives with the government and a “voice for the music industry on Capitol Hill,” Wadelington, 31, had a front-row seat for last year’s negotiations over the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, including a “virtual lobby day” that UMG’s Task Force for Meaningful Change held in support of the proposed legislation. While there’s “more work to be done on that issue,” Wadelington says it was “a career highlight to unite so many notable figures from the music, sports and entertainment industries to help move the needle on police reform.”

Nic Warner
Co-founding partner/GM, Milk & Honey

Warner, 33, describes himself as a “big-picture” executive who’s “still rolling up my sleeves and getting granular with clients and their careers.” While the pandemic continued to stifle the industry in 2021, he kept Milk & Honey growing and its staffers and roster of songwriters — including Jenna Andrews, J White Did It, Noah Goldstein, Y2K and Andrés Torres — busy. While clients scored writing credits for Ed Sheeran’s “Afterglow,” Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” and BTS’ “Butter,” among other hits, Warner oversaw the opening of offices in London, Amsterdam and Australia, along with sports and Web3 divisions.

Contributors: Darlene Aderoju, Katie Bain, Alexei Barrionuevo, Starr Bowenbank, Leila Cobo, Stephen Daw, Chris Eggertsen, Griselda Flores, Josh Glicksman, Lyndsey Havens, Steve Knopper, Carl Lamarre, Elias Leight, Jason Lipshutz, Joe Lynch, Rebecca Milzoff, Gail Mitchell, Melinda Newman, Jessica Nicholson, Kristin Robinson, Neena Rouhani, Glenn Rowley, Dan Rys, Colin Stutz, Andrew Unterberger

Methodology: Billboard’s 40 Under 40 list was chosen by editors based on factors including but not limited to nominations by peers and colleagues, timely career accomplishments and overall impact on the music industry. The nomination process for each Billboard power list opens at least 120 days in advance of publication. The nomination link is sent to press representatives and/or honorees previously featured on Billboard lists, as well as those who send a request to [email protected]. (Editorial calendars are also available through him.) Nominations close not less than 90 days before publication. Unless otherwise noted, Luminate (formerly MRC Data) is the source for chart achievements, tour grosses and sales/streaming data.

This story originally appeared in the May 14, 2022, issue of Billboard.