2026 Speaker Profiles

Jody Gerson is Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group [UMPG] and a member of Universal Music Group’s [UMG’s] Executive Management Board. One of the industry’s most respected and accomplished executives, Gerson leads a global company with 48 offices in 41 countries and more than 850 employees. She made history as the first female chairman of a global music company and the first woman to be named CEO of a major music publisher.

Since joining UMPG in 2015, Gerson has transformed the company into a global powerhouse that owns and administers more than 5 million copyrights and is the industry’s best global home for songwriters.

A highly respected creative authority and thought leader in our culture, Gerson has signed and works with the world’s biggest superstars, including Adele, Bee Gees, Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber, Sabrina Carpenter, Lana Del Rey, Ariana Grande, Coldplay, Drake, Billie Eilish, H.E.R., Elton John, Alicia Keys, Steve Lacy, Kendrick Lamar, Post Malone, Maren Morris, the Prince estate, Rosalia, Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, SZA, The Weeknd, and more. She also led UMPG’s historic and highly competitive acquisitions of the iconic catalogs of Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Sting, and others.

As a champion for women in music and advocate for education, Gerson cofounded the global nonprofit She Is The Music. She also serves on Boards for Gap Inc., Ancestry.com, Project Healthy Minds, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the National Music Publishers Association.

Gerson made history in 2026 as the first woman and first music publishing executive—and only the second person ever—to be named Billboard’s “Executive of the Decade,” appearing as the cover subject of the publication’s coveted Power 100 issue. As Billboard’s editor noted, Gerson is “not just the most powerful woman in the music industry, but one of the most influential executives in all of entertainment, having approximately tripled her company’s publishing revenue while consistently championing songwriters and the value of music.” Billboard previously named her “Executive of the Year” in 2020.

She is the recipient of numerous other prestigious honors, including the Recording Academy’s 2025 Grammy Salute to Industry Icons award; Billboard Power Players’ Choice Award; Variety’s Hitmakers Executive of the Year; Billboard’s 2015 Executive of the Year for their Women In Music issue; International Executive of The Year award at the 2025 Music Business UK Awards; Rolling Stone’s ‘Future 25’; Variety’s Power of Women L.A.; The 2016 March of Dimes Inspiring Woman of the Year; and more.

Gerson oversees Polygram Entertainment, a film and television development and production division of UMG which produces award-winning feature-length films and music-centric series. In 2024 alone, she served as Executive Producer on a broad array of projects, including Music Box: Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary; The Beach Boys; STAX: Soulsville, U.S.A.; and Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It. Other recent projects that Gerson Executive Produced include The Bee Gees: How to Mend a Broken Heart and HBO’s Music Box series. Among her and Polygram’s many projects in development are documentaries on Bernie Taupin and Prince.