A number of senior executives at EMI and the label’s owner, private equity firm Terra Firma, have left the company, the Telegraph has reported.Numbered among the departing executives are Chris Roling, the managing director of portfolio business at Terra Firma and a senior director at EMI for the last 16 months. Roling was regarded as a “key player” at both firms and was focused exclusively on EMI since August.

Ashley Unwin, Terrra Firma’s managing director of talent, has also taken leave. Since 2007, Unwin served as EMI’s CEO for UK and North America.

Francois van der Spuy, another director at Terra Firma, who had been exclusively tasked to EMI since August, has also reportedly left.

Additional exits may be in the offing, including Stephen Alexander, Terra Firma’s operations manager and and finanncial managing director Ruiz Punja. Alexander had been overseeing EMI’s recorded music catalog since March ’08, and Punja had overseen several major acqusitions for Terra Firma, including EMI and Odeon.

The departures are likely related to the new CEO at EMI, Elio Leoni Sceti, who, according to the Telegraph, is keen to bring in some fresh blood after EMI posted losses of more than $1.2 billion dollars last year, almost 3 times the losses posted the previous year.

A scathing report issued by Maltby Capital, a Terra Firma-owned company, chalked the losses up to high operational costs, including executive salaries and “poor” operating performance. “EMI Music had a history of signing great artists but had not adapted sufficiently to the changing consumer market for music,” the reported noted

Source: Encore