EMI Classics appoints Eric Dingman as new president
LONDON, December 15, 2008 – EMI Classics is pleased to announce the appointment of Eric Dingman as its new president.
Dingman, who will take up this global role in January 2009, previously worked at WPP, the international marketing and advertising group, where he led the global strategic review of operations at its consumer insight and research group Kantar.
His career has included senior brand marketing and business development roles as well as extensive experience in marrying the creative and commercial sectors – including seven years working with the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival on behalf of its main sponsor, Labatt Breweries – and he has served as a board member of a number of community organizations, including the Harbourfront Corporation and the Fashion Design Council of Canada (now L’Oreal Fashion Week) where he was the vice chair.
Dingman will report to Ernesto Schmitt, EMI Music’s president of catalog, who said: “I’m delighted that Eric will be taking up the leadership of EMI Classics. The company has an incredible roster of artists and heritage. With his great passion for music and culture and his deep understanding of consumer behavior, Eric is the ideal person to drive EMI Classics forward at this time of unparalleled change and opportunity.”
Dingman said: “I’m thrilled to be joining EMI Classics and it is very exciting to do so when there is a renewed focus on growth. EMI Classics is a fantastic company with an unrivaled catalog and partnerships with so many of the world’s leading recording artists – from established greats like Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker to exciting up-and-coming musicians such as Quatuor Ebène and David Fray. There is so much we can do to open up EMI’s fine classical repertoire in more relevant and accessible ways, thereby enhancing fan interest in the classical genre.”
Eric Dingman
Eric Dingman was born and educated in Toronto, Canada. After a number of roles in organizations including the UN Secretariat in New York, the Government of Ontario and Corporate Affairs Consulting in Toronto and Washington DC, Dingman joined Labatt Breweries in 1987 in the corporate and regulatory affairs department, soon becoming head of corporate and public relations. After gaining an MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management in the US, Dingman returned to Labatt, then part of Interbrew and subsequently InBev, where he took on a number of marketing and commercial roles. In 2001, he was appointed vice president of strategy and business development for InBev North America. In 2004, he moved to Europe as vice president of business services and in 2006 joined Research International – a London-based research agency within WPP’s Kantar Group, with global clients such as Coca Cola, Unilever, and HSBC – as interim COO. The following year, he was appointed to lead the strategic review of Kantar’s global operations. Over the years, he has been a member of a number of community and cultural organizations, including the Canadian Film Centre, Bell Canada Speech Pathology Centre, leading Canadian cultural body the Harbourfront Corporation, and the Fashion Design Council of Canada (now L’Oreal Fashion Week) of which he was vice chair. Dingman has been pursuing his passion for opera around the great opera houses of Rome, Verona, Milan, London, Paris, and New York.
EMI Classics
London-based EMI Classics, which includes the Paris-based label Virgin Classics, is one of the world’s top classical music companies, which regularly records such distinguished orchestras as the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Wiener Philharmoniker, and its exclusive recording artists include Sir Simon Rattle, Antonio Pappano, and Angela Gheorghiu. The company has regularly recorded international superstars such as Plácido Domingo, Itzhak Perlman, and Mstislav Rostropovich, and has a back catalog featuring historic recordings by Maria Callas, Victoria de los Ángeles, Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Jacqueline du Pré, Herbert von Karajan, Otto Klemperer, Sir Adrian Boult, and Sir John Barbirolli, as well as the longest-serving artist in the history of the record industry, the violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin.
Enquiries:
EMI Corporate, www.emigroup.com:
Amanda Conroy, EMI Group, London: +44 (0)20 7795 7529
Richard O’Brien, EMI Group, London: +44 (0)20 7795 7447
Mariko Tada, EMI Classics: (212) 786-8964, [email protected]
Glenn Petry, 21C Media Group: (212) 625-2038, [email protected]