Sony Music has announced the appointment of Stephanie Yu to General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs. She reports to Rob Stringer, Chairman, Sony Music Group and Kevin Kelleher, COO, Sony Music.
Yu will be responsible for overseeing the business, legal and governmental affairs strategies and activities for the company globally, and succeeds Julie Swidler, who stepped down from the post earlier this summer.
“Stephanie has the expertise, guile and poise in all the appropriate complex areas to take on this incredibly important position in our organization,” Stringer said. “She has earned the right to be the head legal player at Sony Music through her journey here and nothing makes me happier than promoting an internal executive to this prominent level.”
Yu said, “I want to thank Rob and Kevin for this opportunity. Over the past 21 years, Sony Music has supported me to pursue new roles and take on new challenges. I look forward to bringing that same encouraging spirit to this role, working across the company to champion our artists and our teams during this particularly dynamic moment in our industry.”
Prior to this appointment, Yu served as Executive Vice President and U.S. Lead of Business and Legal Affairs for more than two years where she oversaw the law division’s operations and strategy for all U.S. frontline Sony Music record labels. Yu first joined Sony Music in 2005, as a litigator, from the firm of Covington & Burling where she spent three years. She moved over to Sony’s Epic Records in 2011, rising to the role of Executive Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs, which she held for nine years.
Yu was featured on Variety’s recently published Music’s Legal Elite list. She also sits on the Executive Committee of the Entertainment Law Initiative, and has served on the board of Womankind which provides services to domestic violence and human trafficking victims.
