Republic chief Jim Roppo exits for Warner Records COO role
Jim Roppo has left his job as chairman and chief executive officer of Republic Records to join Warner Records as chief operating officer. The change was confirmed on 14 October 2026. He will report to Warner Records chairman and chief executive Aaron Bay-Schuck Billboard.
The role is the day-to-day engine room of a record label. A chief operating officer oversees staffing, budgets, release schedules and coordination between departments such as marketing, promotion and sales. At Warner Records, Roppo will take over operational duties from Tom Corson.
Corson, who served as co-chairman and chief operating officer of Warner Records, has been promoted to chief operating officer of Warner Music Group. He succeeds Armin Zerza in that post Billboard. The two appointments amount to a direct handover at the top of Warner Records, with one operations chief moving up and another coming in.
Roppo is a long-term Republic executive. He was promoted to executive vice president and general manager of the label in January 2018 Billboard. He later served as president, a title he held when country singer Miranda Lambert signed with Republic in April 2024 Billboard, and then as president and chief operating officer before rising to chairman and chief executive.
Corson also spent years in senior leadership at Warner Records. He oversaw all aspects of the label's operations as co-chairman and chief operating officer, according to the UCLA School of Music UCLA School of Music. In 2025 he was named the City of Hope Spirit of Life Honoree, an award linked to the cancer charity's fundraising work with the music industry Warner Records.
What makes this stand out is the rarity of a straight switch between large rival labels at this level. Senior executives often stay with one company for a decade or more. A chairman and chief executive leaving one label to take an operations role at another is uncommon.
For listeners, the effect will not be immediate. No releases, tour dates or signings were announced alongside the appointments. But label leadership shapes which artists are signed, how records are marketed and how teams are built around them. Those decisions reach fans months later, when music arrives in shops and on streaming services.
