Leesa Brunson-Boland joins as SVP, A&R Operations and Bina Fronda joins as SVP, Marketing as the Company Scales its Executive Roster
EMPIRE today announced two senior appointments in its New York office: Leesa Brunson-Boland as Senior Vice President, A&R Operations, and Bina Fronda as Senior Vice President, Marketing.
The hires reflect EMPIRE's continued growth as the company expands its roster across genres and markets. Both roles add senior leadership to the systems and teams that take EMPIRE’s artists from the studio to a global audience.
EMPIRE has named industry veteran Leesa Brunson-Boland as Senior Vice President of A&R Operations. In her new role, she will oversee A&R Operations within EMPIRE's A&R department, providing strategic leadership and support across A&R teams, improving workflows and strengthening cross-functional collaboration to ensure projects move successfully from recording through release. Brunson previously served as Head of A&R Operations at 300 Entertainment following nearly two decades at Def Jam Recordings, where she worked with groundbreaking artists including Rihanna, Jay-Z, Justin Bieber and Teyana Taylor.
“I have known Leesa for over 20 years and her commitment to artists and her operational expertise is going to be invaluable to our artists and to our team as we expand the scope of the A&R team’s mandate,” said Tina Davis, President, EMPIRE.
Bina Fronda, SVP, Marketing joins EMPIRE from Ultra Records where she was VP of Marketing, working closely with their artists such as Steve Aoki, SOFI TUKKER and Benny Benassi to maximize revenue and exposure opportunities. Fronda will support EMPIRE's marketing efforts across genres, with a focus on strengthening the company's dance, pop and general market artists. Her appointment comes as EMPIRE continues to broaden its global roster beyond its core genres.
Said Peter Kadin, EVP, Marketing, “Bina's experience scaling artist brands and her understanding of the current market is critical as EMPIRE continues to build out our Dance business and explore other genres and markets.”
Together, the appointments strengthen two pillars of EMPIRE's model: an A&R operation built to deliver projects on time and at scale and a marketing team equipped to break artists across genres and territories.
About EMPIRE
EMPIRE exists to empower independent artists and the cultures they come from. Founded in 2010 by Ghazi Shami and headquartered in San Francisco, EMPIRE is a leading independent music company with businesses spanning recorded music, distribution, publishing, merchandise and label services. EMPIRE identifies and develops global artists at the earliest stages of their careers and has played a key role in launching some of the most influential and commercially successful artists of the past decade across hip-hop, R&B, country, Afrobeats and beyond, including Kendrick Lamar and Shaboozey. Committed to artist ownership, entrepreneurship and innovation, EMPIRE combines proprietary technology with deep A&R expertise to give artists the speed, transparency and creative freedom to build lasting careers on their own terms. For more information, visit www.empi.re.