LONDON (CelebrityAccess) — Sony Music’s AWAL announced the appointment of a new leadership team in the UK that will be led by Matt Riley, who has been named Managing Director.
Based in London, Riley will expand his current portfolio as the Head of A&R and will collaborate with AWAL’s President Paul Hitchman and AWAL CEO Lonny Olinick to sign new artists and develop AWAL’s existing roster.
Riley joined AWAL in 2014 and has since played a role in signing artists such as Bruno Major, Rex Orange County and Tom Misch. In his new role, he will report directly to Hitchman.
AWAL also announced the promotion of Victoria Needs and Sam Potts to the respective roles as Senior Vice Presidents for AWAL. Both executives will report to Riley.
Needs will add the UK to her existing marketing duties for AWAL and previously served as VP of International Marketing. Potts joined AWAL in 2019 as Vice President of Promotion and his remit expands to include spearheading audience development and growth strategies for AWAL artists across digital and traditional media.
“AWAL’s mission is to be the world’s best artist development company and, by creating a new leadership team for the UK that spans A&R, marketing and promotion, we have all of the skills and focus to deliver on that aim for UK artists. Matt, Victoria and Sam have all proven themselves as market leaders in their respective fields and have highly complementary skills. The combination will be an unstoppable force as we look to take the AWAL business to the next level in the UK.”
“I’m really happy and super energised having formed a formidable leadership team with Sam and Victoria. We are working hard every day to build a fantastic team and culture at AWAL, delivering fantastic results for our artists through hard work, storytelling and above all a commitment to artist development,” Riley stated.
