Vevo CEO Erik Huggers Will Step Down From His Position

Vevo will need to go shopping for a new CEO. The music video network’s top executive, Erik Huggers, announced in a memo to employees that he will step down from his position, Variety reports.

Huggers joined Vevo in 2015 after taking over for Rio Caraeff, who had led the company since its 2009 inception. Under Caraeff, Vevo — which is jointly owned by “Big Three” music labels Warner, Sony, and Universal as well as Abu Dhabi Media Group and Google — became the best-known distributor of music videos on the internet. The network developed a particularly strong bond with YouTube, but Huggers sought to generate more brand recognition for Vevo itself. The most prominent project he sought to complete was a planned subscription service that would offer both music videos and original content to its customers.

In February 2017, Vevo announced that the subscription video service would be put on hold, and updates from the company have been scant since then. In the memo announcing his departure, Huggers wrote that he is a “big believer in the growth opportunities of the direction we have discussed at recent Town Hall meetings,” but also said “now is the perfect time for someone new to lead this next chapter for Vevo.”

“When I reflect on nearly three years with Vevo, I cannot help but to feel very proud of the transformation that we have achieved together,” Huggers wrote. Whether you look at financial performance, audience engagement, editorial output, product experience, brand recognition, impact and exposure in the market place, etc. By all those indicators Vevo is a much stronger company today.”

With Huggers’ departure, Vevo CFO Alan Price has been appointed as the company’s interim CEO. He will pull double duty as both CEO and CFO until a full-time replacement for Huggers can be found.