Jody Gerson
Jody Gerson is Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) and a member of Universal Music Group’s (UMG’s) Executive Management Board. One of the industry’s most respected and accomplished executives, Gerson leads a global company with 48 offices in 40 countries and more than 850 employees. She made history as the first female chairman of a global music company and the first woman to be named CEO of a major music publisher.
Since joining UMPG in 2015, Gerson has transformed the company into a global powerhouse that owns and administers more than 5 million copyrights and the industry’s best global home for songwriters.
A highly respected creative authority and thought leader in our culture, Gerson has signed and works with the world’s biggest superstars, including Adele, Bee Gees, Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter, Lana Del Rey, Ariana Grande, Coldplay, Drake, Billie Eilish, H.E.R., Elton John, Alicia Keys, Steve Lacy, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, Maren Morris, the Prince estate, Rosalia, Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, SZA, The Weeknd, and more. She also led UMPG’s historic and highly competitive acquisitions of the iconic catalogs of Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Sting, and others.
As a champion for women in music and advocate for education, Gerson cofounded the global nonprofit She Is The Music. She also serves on Boards for the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the National Music Publishers Association, New Roads School, and Project Healthy Minds.
In January 2020, Gerson made history as the first woman and first music publishing executive to be named Billboard’s ‘Executive of the Year’ for that outlet’s most coveted Power 100 list, and annually ranks within that list’s Top Ten. She is the recipient of numerous other prestigious honors, including Billboard’s Power Players’ Choice Award; Variety’s Hitmakers Executive of the Year; Billboard’s 2015 Executive of the Year for their Women In Music issue; Rolling Stone’s ‘Future 25’; Variety’s Power of Women L.A.; the 2016 March of Dimes Inspiring Woman of the Year; and more.
Gerson jointly oversees Polygram Entertainment, a film and television development and production division of UMG which produces award-winning feature-length films and music-centric series. In 2024 alone, she served as Executive Producer on a broad array of projects, including Music Box: Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary; The Beach Boys; STAX: Soulsville, U.S.A.; and Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It. Other recent projects that Gerson Executive Produced include The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart and HBO’s Music Box series. Among her and Polygram’s many projects in development are documentaries on Bernie Taupin and Prince.
