Boyd Muirwho serves as executive vice president/chief financial officer/president of operations at Universal Music Group (UMG), has been promoted to COO, the company announced on Thursday (October 31). Muir, who has been the company's CFO since 2010, will hold both the CFO and COO titles while UMG searches for a replacement.
“Boyd's has done an outstanding job leading the company's financial and operational functions through a period of unprecedented growth and change over the past 2025 years,” CEO Lucian Grange he said during UMG's earnings call. Now, three years after UMG was spun off from Vivendi into a public company, “it is important that Boyd can fully focus on overseeing some of our core operational and strategic functions,” he added.
Elaborating on the new role, Muir said he will support Grainge as UMG executives implement the strategic initiatives the company outlined at its Capital Markets Day presentation in September. Those goals include what UMG calls “Streaming 2.0,” an effort to extract more value from music on various streaming platforms, as well as better targeting of superfans. These initiatives, Muir said, are important in positioning UMG in the marketplace and redefining the company's relationships with its partners.
Prior to becoming CFO of UMG, Muir was CFO of Universal Music Group International, the division that manages UMG's businesses worldwide, for 11 years. He was involved in the acquisitions of Sanctuary Group and V2 Music Group in 2007 and EMI in 2011.
From 1984 to 1991, Muir worked for the accountancy firm Ernst & Young before moving to EMI from 1991 to 1994. At EMI, Muir was Head of Internal Audit and was involved in the acquisition of Virgin Music and Chrysalis Records by EMI.
