Virgin Brings on Syaheed MSBI as Vice President of the Africa, Middle East and Asia Division

Virgin Music Group, a subsidiary of Universal Music Group (UMG), has hired Syaheed MSBI as Vice President of its Africa, Middle East and Asia (AMEA) division. In this role, he will oversee all activities for the label in that region.

Background:

• MSBI comes to Virgin after over 13 years at French independent music company Believe.

• His most recent role there was Global Artist Success & International Director.

• At Believe, he established the company’s artists services branch in Southeast Asia and Australia, while also spearheading its Singapore and Malaysia offices.

• MSBI will be another key member of Virgin’s AMEA team, which currently includes Haluk Cerahaman in Turkey, Amit Sharma in India, Cindy Gu in Southeast Asia, Marcus Rowland in China, Kay Ikazobo in Nigeria, Nicole Thomas in South Africa, and Anita Zagar in South Korea.

What they said:

• MSBI: “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 MD of AMEA: “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.”