Veteran Canadian music executive Chris Taylor has resigned from his position as president and CEO of the independent music company MNRK Music Group to build an as-yet unnamed new management company. His last day is June 28.
Taylor, now based in Los Angeles, will take the artist management division and roster with him. MNRK has no stake in the new venture.
“It was an amicable, mutual discussion,” Taylor tells Variety. “I really want to get back to being closer to film and TV and other media. So this new venture will be more of that, as opposed to strictly music.”
While he can’t disclose any names just yet, he says his new company will manage artists, actors, directors, writers. “I’ll have a little bit more to announce in July when I get there,” Taylor says. “I’m still figuring out the details and pulling it together.”
Taylor has been doing interviews recently for the 20th anniversary of Last Gang Records (Metric, Death From Above, Mother Mother), the label he co-founded with industry veteran Donald Tarlton but sold in 2016 to Entertainment One (eOne) when he accepted the offer to head up its music division. eOne was later purchased by Hasbro, then to Blackstone in 2021, which rebranded as MNRK. Taylor says Last Gang will continue to be run by Chris Moncada, senior vice president, business development; and Dan Hawie, director, marketing/A&R, MNRK, both based in Toronto.
“It’s going to do amazing,” says Taylor, adding, “I’m really happy about this — it’s all really worked out. I’m sad; I’ll miss the team that I was working with there and everything else, but this is a better move for me at this time.”
New York-based Sean Stevenson, chief operating officer, will replace him, moving into the role July 1.
“We wish Chris the best in his future endeavors,” Stevenson said in a \ statement. “He’s been a great leader and partner over the years, and I look forward to continuing the growth of MNRK with the whole team.”
Taylor oversaw a staff of over 100 people, working in major music hubs around the world across four verticals: recording, publishing, management, and music department. Top clients include Lumineers, Pop Evil, Jonathan McReynolds (records); Parisi, Will Clark, 9AM (publishing); Pitbull, Arkells, and Daniel Lanois (management).
Source Agencies
