Career Highlights
- 30+ year career in music industry
- Initiated and closed Sony’s Joint Venture’s, Century Media Records, Triple Tigers, Communion Presents and Immersive Sony Studio at Black River Records in Nashville. Music Biz Distributor of the year, Billboard Indie Power Player of the year.
- Most notable positions held : Indie store owner, Sales Director, VP Sales, SVP Marketing, SVP, Field Operations, SVP Label Management, EVP/GM, President, CEO/Owner of Cool Is Forever.
Personal highlights
Lives in NY on Long Island, husband to Donna of 39 years, father to Matthew and Jared, has dogs Sonny, Clancy and MJ. SUNY Farmingdale graduate, Dale Carnegie graduate, SF Giant lifetime fan.
Bob started his career working in local record stores while going to college. When he graduated, he chose not to become a dietitian, but to become the manager of the record store. He soon moved to open his own record shop, “Something Else Records“ named after an Eddie Cochran hit song. It was modeled after legendary West village NYC indie shops, Bleeker Bobs and Sounds. After a successful 2 years, Bob sold his half to his partner and went to work for PolyGram Records. Initially putting up P O P in record stores and eventually becoming the number one sales rep for the NY territory. He was involved with the success of The Bee Gees, KISS, Bon Jovi, Donna Summer, Sting and Eric Clapton. After 7 years, Bob moved to RCA Records and then BMG. First as their key account sales rep, then as a regional manager, then national director of Sales. As BMG grew to a billion dollar company, Bob became VP Label Management, SVP Sales/Label Management and SVP Marketing, which included running the field sales, marketing reps/management of over 150 staff. Bob assisted in the launches and growth of Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Britney Spears, Dirty Dancing, Whitney Houston, The Notorious B.I.G., ATCQ, Rod Stewart, Yanni, Usher, Santana, Creed, Buddy Guy, Moby, The Strokes and Foo Fighters. During this time, Bob also ran a Field Operations dept which trained all new staff in their position, as well as created Wasabi, BMG’s indie label within a major. It was during this period in which Bob honed his business approach where Customer Service and Service Excellence mattered most, he developed great relationships with his business partners as well as prioritizing the Artist and their Music above all else. “Always do the right thing for the Music.”
BMG merged with Sony and Bob was tapped to run this company as EVP/GM. He combined the 2 staffs, 2 cultures and ran this 2 Billion dollar company now additionally dealing with iconic stars like Bruce, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and Beyonce. Bob then wanted to again, get closer to the music. Here is where he began a 12 year run as President of RED Distribution, a small indie company within Sony. Within 2 years, Bob started reimagining what a distribution company could be. First by restructuring and adding “Label Services” to a Distribution Co. An approach eventually copied by other Distributors. He added a robust Marketing dept, including PR, Advertising, College Marketing, Brand Sponsorship, Influencer Marketing, Graphic Design, Data and Consumption Analytics, Social media and a Merch Division. He also added a Radio Promotion dept, all of which lead to unprecedented success. Increasing market share from under 1 percent to 5 plus percent, countless Gold/Platnum/number 1 records, winning NARM (Music Biz) Indie Distributor of the year every year, Bob becoming a Billboard Power Player. Bob’s philosophy was to start with a strong fundamental structure, “building the walls before hanging the pictures”. He has an entrepreneurial “Don’t just check boxes” approach, things have to matter or don’t do them. Plus continuing to always prioritize the Music as well as his own staff. This approach attracted the best labels, artists in the Music business. Jason Aldean, Mumford and Sons, Alabama Shakes, Kelsea Ballerini, Phoenix, Bayside, LoCash, Daya, Noah Cyrus, In This Moment, 21 Savage, Brandy Carlile, Bullet for My Valentine, Joey Badass, Jason Isbell, Gov’t Mule, Fredo Bang, G-Eazy, AWOLNATION and Childish Gambino.
Post running distribution, Bob transitioned to President of Sony start up label, RED MUSIC LABEL GROUP. Within 2 years, there was major pop sales and radio success with Max and Jake Miller, major alternative success with Lovelytheband and The Unlikely Candidates, major country success with Russell Dickerson, Gone West and Scotty McCreery, major hip hop success with Tay-K and Tay Money, major rock success with Buck Cherry, OAR and Dream Theater. In recent months prior to launching “Cool is Forever Consulting” Bob worked with Sony Japan assisting launch a new Immersive audio mix, 360RA. Here he coordinated content creation efforts and in person demos for artists and labels at Sony and Battery Studios for release through Amazon, Tidal and Deezer.
Learn more about Cool is Forever: https://www.coolisforever.net/
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