11 Jody Gerson

Chairman/CEO UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP

For Gerson, “Running a company with integrity is why so many artists — and private equity companies that have bought catalogs — come to us to handle their administration,” she says. “They all trust us and know we will collect every percentage of a penny.” At the start of 2024, Universal acquired a $240 million minority stake in Chord Music Partners, a 60,000-song catalog that includes stakes in top songs like “Dreams” and “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac, “La Grange” by ZZ Top and “Counting Stars” and “Apologize” by OneRepublic, all of which are administered by Gerson’s team and distributed by Virgin. She says “trust” also played a key role in enabling

UMPG to acquire the catalogs of Sting, Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan over the last few years.

And she’s excited that ample opportunities now exist to bring artists’ music to new audiences through other media, noting the Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, as well as documentaries The Beach Boys and Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary that premiered on Disney+ and MAX, respectively. A documentary about Elton John’s songwriting partner, Bernie Taupin, and a scripted film featuring music from Prince are also in development. “We have found more creative ways to create value, like these projects,” she says.