Virgin Music Group appoints Syaheed MSBI as Vice President of AMEA region
Virgin Music Group has appointed Syaheed MSBI as Vice President of its AMEA region, covering Africa, the Middle East and Asia, in a newly created role confirmed on Thursday, August 13 (Music Business Worldwide).
He reports to Michael Roe, Virgin Music Group's Managing Director of AMEA, and joins from Believe, the French-founded music company, where he spent more than 13 years. His most recent title there was Global Artist Success and International Director.
At Believe, Syaheed built the company's artist services business across Southeast Asia and Australia, and played a key role in establishing Believe's teams and offices in Singapore and Malaysia. He worked with artists including Hindia, Yura Yunita, Sal Priadi, Saran, Blvckheart, Nik Makino, Young Bleed Neet and Cub Sport — a roster spanning Indonesian pop, Australian indie and regional hip-hop.
Before Believe, Syaheed founded his own independent music company, Bedsty, in 2002, signing, producing and developing artists across Singapore and Malaysia. One of his Bedsty signings, Sezairi, became the first Singaporean artist to surpass 100 million streams on Spotify. He also worked with Sheikh Haikel, THELIONCITYBOY and Wicked Aura through the company.
The appointment follows a larger restructuring at Virgin Music Group. The company acquired Downtown Music Holdings in a deal first announced in 2024, bringing businesses including CD Baby, Songtrust and Downtown Music Publishing under one roof. After the acquisition closed, Pieter van Rijn was named Chief Operating Officer, while Downtown founder Justin Kalifowitz stepped away. FUGA and Downtown Artist & Label Services — both distribution and label-services operations — now sit within Virgin Music Group's regional leadership structure.
Virgin Music Group is led by co-CEOs Nat Pastor and JT Myers, and operates as a division of Universal Music Group. Its homepage lists a roster that includes BTS, Stray Kids, TWICE, NCT 127, Joji, Beabadoobee, The 1975, Disclosure and Flume, alongside regional artists such as Himesh Reshammiya and Tony Kakkar (India), Henrique & Juliano (Brazil), Carin Leon and Grupo Firme (Mexico), and Lucky Brown (Chile).
The AMEA appointment is the latest in a run of leadership moves at the group. Dan Nevin was named Vice President of Industry Relations in a newly created role in June 2026. Earlier structural appointments include Zack Gershen as Executive Vice President of Global Commercial & Digital Strategy and Joy Larocca as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, both confirmed in October 2023.
For a region that spans three continents and dozens of music markets at wildly different stages of streaming adoption, Syaheed's track record is rooted in the ground-level work of building teams, signing artists and opening offices where none existed. Whether that translates into expanded market share for Virgin Music Group across AMEA will depend on execution — but the hire brings someone who has done it before, more than once, in neighbouring territory.
