Because Ramps Up Award Winning UK Team with Trio of Top Hires
- Includes Adele A&R Nick Huggett joining as Chief Creative Officer
20th March 2018: In a significant expansion of its UK operation, the Because Music Group has made three key senior staff additions to its award-winning team. Nick Huggett joins as CCO (Because Music UK), Lisa Rimmer as Director of Sales & Digital Operations and Laura Kelly as Creative & Marketing Product Manager for London Records.Huggett is best known for discovering, signing and developing Adele as well as signing Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, MIA, Jack Penate, Alex Clare, Rizzle Kicks and Jack Garratt amongst others.Having started his career at London institution Mr Bongo, Huggett spent several years on London’s alternative dance music scene before being offered an A&R job by James Lavelle at Mo Wax and then XL Recordings. Since his early days at XL, Huggett has held senior A&R positions at Columbia, Island and Parlophone.Lisa Rimmer, meanwhile, joins as Director of Sales & Digital Operations, operating across both the Because roster and the London Records back catalogue which Because recently acquired as part of the Parlophone divestment process between Warner Music Group and Merlin/IMPALA. Rimmer joins from Warner Music UK where she spent four years in account management, following eight years at EMI Music.Finally, Laura Kelly joins as Creative & Marketing Product Manager looking after the London Records back catalogue. She spent seven years at Ignition Records/Big Brother Recordings working with artists such as Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Primal Scream.Said Emmanuel De Buretel of the expansion of the UK team: “It’s a great pleasure to welcome Laura, Lisa and Nick into the Because Music family. “Lisa will strengthen our UK sales force significantly with her expertise and we look forward to Laura developing London Records, using her creative and commercial process to breathe life back into some of the incredible albums included in the catalogue.“Nick will bring a fresh and dynamic approach to A&R for the UK label. It's a priority for us this year to grow and develop our UK repertoire whilst staying faithful to Because’s spirit. Given his unparalleled track record of finding and developing some of the most creatively and commercially successful artists of the last 10 years, I’m confident Nick will lead the UK team to great success.”Added Huggett on joining the Because Music UK team: “I’m very excited to join Because and I’m looking forward to working with Emmanuel and his team. In a time where many artists question the role of the record label, it’s very clear that what Because have to offer is very compelling to any new ambitious artist. I’m looking forward to help build on the success the label has had over the last few years. Having got to know Emmanuel over the last few months, he is clearly a passionate music lover and a forward thinking business man; he’s the sort of person I want to roll with”. Because recently announced a new global physical distribution deal with Caroline International which commenced on January 1. Their multi-year agreement includes marketing, promotion and physical distribution.It will now distribute directly to digital platforms via Merlin membership.The Because Group was created 14 years ago by Emmanuel de Buretel (former CEO of Virgin Europe and EMI Europe) and is active in music production, music publishing, touring and venues. It is one of the leading independent music groups in Europe with artists such as Christine and the Queens, Metronomy, Major Lazer, Justice, Django Django and Charlotte Gainsbourg.Because Music UK won Independent Label of the Year at the Music Business Worldwide A&R Awards in 2016 and Independent Label of the Year at the 2017 AIM Awards.The UK label is nominated in the Independent Record Company category in the 2018 Music Week Awards.