CAN ROACH KILLER SAVE EMI MUSIC?

The Times of London reported over the weekend that little-known Italian executive Elio Leoni-Sceti is being considered by Terra Firma boss Guy Hands to run the recorded music division of EMI.

Leoni-Sceti comes from Reckitt Benckiser, the consumer products group, where he was responsible for the British company's low-concept marketing until taking over its European operations two years ago.

A Reckitt advertisement for its cockroach spray shows the large insects racing to get away, after being doused by a toxins made by the company and a rival. Reckitt's Mortein kills the roaches before they make it, unlike the competing product, allowing executives to demonstrate what they call its product’s superior “speed of death.”

Will Leoni-Sceti now get to handle another kind of Beatle?

Hands is presumably looking to Leoni-Sceti to bring his international marketing skills to complement the A&R expertise of the recently appointed Nick Gatfield as he tries to build a central marketing operation capable of promoting its acts on a worldwide basis.

The 42-year-old, who is based in Reckitt's Slough U.K. headquarters, holds nearly £9million of the company’s shares, after selling about £8million of them last summer.

He joined Reckitt in 1992 from Procter & Gamble.

The possible appointment fueled memories of other non-music industry executives in similar positions over the years, and their relative lack of success. EMI alone was headed by candyman Eric Nicoli, consumer goods expert Jim Fifield and Colin Southgate over the years, Warner Music Group infamously hired Bob Morgado, Michael Fuchs, Terry Semel and Bob Daly, while BMG tapped Strauss Zelnick and Rolf Schmidt-Holtz and Sony Music brought in Andy Lack.