EMI continues to add executives from beyond the music industry with the appointed of Ernesto Schmitt as president of its catalog business. Schmitt, 38, joins EMI from DSG International, Europe’s second largest consumer electronics retailer.
He succeeds Stephen Alexander, a Terra Firma managing director who has led the catalog division as its interim president since March. With catalog that includes The Beatles and other heritage superstars, the division is important to EMI's bottom line.
Biography of Ernesto Schmitt:
Ernesto Schmitt joins EMI from DSG International, Europe’s second largest consumer electronics retailer which operates the Dixons, Currys and PC World stores, and where he was group development director. From 2006 to 2008, he worked at Tesco as group ordering director, helping build its business internationally including its launch in America. Prior to that he was joint chief executive and founder of silverscreen, the UK’s first dedicated chain of movie stores.
From 2001 to 2002 Schmitt was EMI Group’s senior vice president of strategy and business development. Prior to that he founded peoplesound.com, a pioneering new internet venture designed to use technology to help consumers discover music and to help music companies develop consumer insight. At the time it was Europe’s largest online music business. He began his career at Boston Consulting Group where he was a strategy consultant for four years.
