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“After leading the acquisition from Time Warner, transforming the company, and selling it to Access, I believe I can add greater value by addressing the challenges WMG faces on a macro scale, while handing over the day-to-day reins to Steve."
—-Edgar Bronfman Jr.

BRONFMAN, COOPER SWITCH PLACES AT WMG

Edgar Is Named Chairman, While Turnaround Specialist Cooper Becomes CEO
With Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries swooping down on EMI, WMG has switched board roles for Edgar Bronfman Jr. and turnaround specialist Stephen Cooper.

Cooper will be the new CEO, responsible for the company’s day-to-day operations, while Bronfman will become the Chairman.

Bronfman wrote in an interoffice memo that “after leading the acquisition from Time Warner, transforming the company, and selling it to Access, I believe I can add greater value by addressing the challenges WMG faces on a macro scale, while handing over the day-to-day reins to Steve. That allows me the time to pursue my collaborative dance project with M.I.A."

He said he conveyed to the Access team "my strong conviction that my energies on behalf of the company would best be directed toward transformative transactions and long-term strategy."

As part of the change, Recorded Music Chairman/CEO Lyor Cohen and Warner/Chappell Music CEO Cameron Strang will both now report directly to Cooper.

In addition to his role with WMG, Cooper is a member of the supervisory board for LyondellBasell Industries N.V., a chemicals and refining company; is managing partner of Cooper Investment Partners, a private equity firm; and is an advisor at Zolfo Cooper, a financial advisory and interim management firm he co-founded. In the past he has served as chairman or chief executive officer of various businesses, including Vice Chairman of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. and CEO of Hawaiian Telecom. Cooper received a B.A. from Occidental College and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

Cooper has been involved in some of the most high-profile turnaround tasks of the past decade, including scandal-ridden Enron Corp. and KrispyKreme Donuts. He has had some failures, too, such as his task to rescue Hawaiian Telecom, a land-line company that Carlyle Group had acquired from Verizon and filed for bankruptcy protection last December.

In a press release, Bronfman said, "With the Access Industries transaction closed and WMG well-positioned for its next exciting chapter, it was clear that in order to best seize the strategic opportunities before us, we needed to deploy our team in the most effective and imaginative manner possible. Which means I chose the short straw."

In other WMG news, Thomas H. Lee Capital LLC Chairman/CEO Thomas H.Lee has been elected as a new director to the WMG board. He had been a WMG director previously from March 2004 through July 2011. With the appointment of Lee, the size of WMG's Board has increased from nine to 10 members.

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