In April, Billboard unveiled the 2023 International Power Players list, a list of executives with primary responsibility for markets outside the United States. Blue Raincoat Music Co-Founder/CEO and Chrysalis Records CEO Jeremy Lascelles, Reservoir Managing Director and Global Strategic Liaison Annette Barrett, and PopArabia Founder/CEO and Reservoir EVP of International and Emerging Markets Spek were all named to the list.

As the CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Raincoat Music and CEO at Chrysalis Records, Lascelles has been involved across the music industry for decades, signing and developing recording artists like Laura Marling and Ben Harper, publishing clients like Self Esteem, and celebrating success with management clients like Phoebe Bridgers, Arlo Parks, Nova Twins and Cigarettes After Sex, among others. He has served as the Vice Chairman of AIM, a Board Member at BPI, and is a Founding Board Member of the music industry environmental organization Julie’s Bicycle. 

Barrett has held the position of Managing Director at Reverb Music, one of the United Kingdom’s most successful independent music publishers, since 2001, working with noted songwriters like Nitin Sawhney, Jamie Hartman, and Pete Gordeno. Following the company’s 2012 acquisition by Reservoir, Annette’s role expanded to include the pursuit of intercontinental opportunities for the company’s international roster, which now includes talent like Cutfather and Katie Melua. In 2020, she was elected President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Independent Music Publishers Forum (IMPF).

After years of working as a successful recording artist and songwriter, Spek founded PopArabia in 2011. Under his leadership, PopArabia has become the leading music publisher in the Middle East & North Africa, representing an estimated 60% of global published repertoire through sub publishing agreements with the likes of Reservoir, Sony Music Publishing, BMG Rights, Kobalt, Roundhill Music, and Concord, among others. In 2019, PopArabia announced a joint venture with Reservoir to invest in regional talent in the Middle East and North Africa market. He has since spearheaded the signing of multi-Platinum Indian rapper Divine, LGBTQ+ advocate and Palestinian pop artist Bashar Murad, celebrated Lebanese musician Zeid Hamdan, and Egyptian superstar Mohamed Ramadan, among others.

See the full list of Billboard’s International Power Players.