Utopia hires Tony Latham as Head of Investor Services

Utopia has hired Tony Latham as Vice President of its ‘Investor Services Business Unit’, which it says will “support catalog acquisition and maximise fund lifecycle monetization opportunities for existing and future Utopia clients”.

Latham joined Utopia on November 25, 2021 reporting to COO Roberto Neri, and will be based in London.

Prior to joining Utopia, Latham was Financial Director at PPL PRS, the UK joint licensing venture between PRS for Music and PPL.

Before that, he spent more than a decade as Global CFO at the Music Sales Group – now Wise Music Group. Latham began his career as a Chartered Accountant at Deloitte, where he spent 11 years in audit, consultancy and M&A.

Latham’s appointment is the latest in a string of high-profile Utopia hires, with Roberto Neri joining as Chief Operating Officer in September, followed by the appointments of Paul Gathercole as Chief Data Officer, Åsa Carild as Head of Platform, Paul Stuart as Chief Legal Officer, Mark Williamson as Vice President for Creator Services, and Rachel Kelly as Vice President for Australia.

“I’m sure Tony will be instrumental in helping us deliver on our mission of Fair Pay for Every Play.”

Roberto Neri, Utopia Music

“We are very excited about Tony joining Utopia,” said Roberto Neri, COO at Utopia Music.

“Tony is a first class addition to our expanding global team. His experience in the Music Industry and commercial acumen will help lead the way for the success of the Investor Services Unit, working as a partner to our clients, and helping us untap the real value of Music.

“I’m sure Tony will be instrumental in helping us deliver on our mission of Fair Pay for Every Play.”

“I could not be more delighted to be working with Markku, Roberto and such a talented and passionate team at Utopia.”

Tony Latham

Latham added: “I am honoured to be joining such an innovative business with the best interests of music creators at its core.

“I could not be more delighted to be working with Markku, Roberto and such a talented and passionate team at Utopia.

“This truly is a company out to make a real difference and bring about transformational change for our industry – to deliver transparency and fairness to creators of music, and to deliver enhanced value to its custodians. Its vision is bold and ambitious and I’m hugely excited to be a part of delivering it.”

Switzerland-headquartered fintech company Utopia Music, which sources tell MBW has tens of millions of dollars at its disposal, has acquired four companies since September.

Just last week it acquired US-based music industry directory ROSTR and Austria-based music data analytics platform, ForTunes.

In October, the firm bought Nashville-based financial services company, Lyric Financial and in September, Utopia bought Quincy Jones-backed emotional data enrichment company MusimapMusic Business Worldwide