UMG Nashville Elevates Lori Christian & Rob Femia

/by

Lori Christian & Rob Femia

UMG Nashville has promoted Lori Christian and Rob Femia to executive positions. Christian will now serve as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Femia has been named Executive Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs for the label group consisting of Capitol Records Nashville, EMI Records Nashville, Mercury Nashville and MCA Nashville.

In her new role, Christian will oversee the Artist Development, Brands & Sponsorship, Creative Services, International Marketing and Media Marketing departments for the label group’s artist roster. Christian rose to SVP of Marketing in 2020 after leading UMG Nashville’s Publicity department since the 2012 merger of EMI and Universal Music Group. During her time with the label group, Christian has played a key role in crafting overall messaging and defining narrative for UMG Nashville artists and their music. She has overseen the launches of multi-Platinum-selling, award-winning projects from Alan Jackson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Stapleton, Darius Rucker, Keith Urban and Luke Bryan, among others as well as development of artists including Brothers Osborne, Jon Pardi, Jordan Davis and Sam Hunt. Christian has also played an instrumental role in advancing the careers of Mickey Guyton, Parker McCollum, Sam Williams, Tyler Hubbard and The War And Treaty. A Pittsburgh-native and Denison University graduate, her prior career stops include Capitol Records Nashville, where she oversaw the publicity department, and Sony Music, where she handled publicity for the RCA Records label roster.

“Lori’s understanding of storytelling and weaving our artists narratives into framing their stories has been a critical element of UMG Nashville’s success,” says Cindy Mabe, UMG Nashville Chair & CEO. “Artist development is such a defining feature that separates our artists, especially in a world where everyone is looking for immediate gratification. Having Lori in this leadership role to help drive the key tenants of artist development across all of UMG Nashville is going to change our artist growth strategy. I am so excited to see how Lori leads and guides a new era in artist marketing across UMG Nashville.”

Femia has over 15 years of experience practicing entertainment law, an extensive knowledge of the industry and has fostered relationships with artists and their management teams. He joined UMG Nashville in 2013 as Head of Business & Legal Affairs, and rose to to SVP in 2018, and has now earned the role of EVP as he leads the BA department. Femia is a graduate of Rutgers Law School with prior work history at Sony, BMG, Virgin Records/Capitol Music Group/EMI Music North America and Atlantic Records.

“It’s an honor to expand Rob’s leadership abilities beyond his vast business and legal knowledge,” expresses Mabe. “Rob has had a front seat in dealmaking for a while but as we expand the new goals of UMG Nashville, Rob is helping to write and build the next era of country music business. With the industry changing so rapidly, Rob is an essential partner to our future as Universal Music Group Nashville and his alignment and guidance of our staff and artists is critical to our success. It’s an honor to watch Rob shine and lead our company and I am thrilled to have him join our executive team.”

Liza Anderson
Latest posts by Liza Anderson (see all)