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At last night’s prestigious MBW A&R Awards, Warner Chappell Music UK was named Publisher of the Year; Atlantic Records UK’s Co-Head of A&R, Alec Boateng, won Hip-Hop/Grime A&R of the Year and Warner Music UK’s Grace Goddard collected the A&R Administrator award.

Warner Chappell Music’s accolade comes after a strong 12 months for the publisher, which has topped the UK charts with Dave, Foals, Liam Gallagher and Stormzy, while bolstering its roster by signing the likes of Afro B, Au/Ra, Bernard Butler, Celeste, Julian Cope, John Power, Lostboy, Monique Lawz and Winnie Raeder.

Mike Smith,

Paul Smith has been promoted to the newly created role of Vice President, A&R and International Songwriters at Warner Chappell Music (WCM). He will further strengthen relationships between the songwriters on the music publisher’s global roster, driving collaborations both between them and with major recording artists worldwide.

Based in London, Smith will report to Mike Smith, WCM’s UK Managing Director, and also have a dotted line into Shani Gonzales, the company’s newly appointed EVP of International A&R.

As well as creating Smith’s new role, Warner Chappell Music is introducing ARROW, a

Warner Chappell Music (WCM) has announced the appointment of music industry veteran Shani Gonzales as Head of International, Executive Vice President of U.S., A&R. Based in New York, she will report to WCM Co-Chair & CEO Guy Moot. Gonzales was most recently Co-Head of A&R at BMG U.S. and U.K., following stints at Epic Records and Def Jam. This new post marks the return to Warner Chappell for Gonzales, who was a member of the company’s A&R team from 2004 to 2008.

While at BMG, Gonzales was included in Billboard’s prestigious 2016 A&R Power Players list.