Charlie Walk
| Charlie Walk | |
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| Alma mater | Boston University's School of Management |
| Occupation | Music Executive |
| Employer | Republic Records |
| Known for | Former President of Epic Records |
| Title | President of The Republic Group of Universal Music Group |
Charlie Walk is an American music executive and entrepreneur. Walk is the President of the Republic Records Group, having served as an executive vice president at Republic Records, a division of Universal Music Group, since 2013. He was president of Epic Records, a division of Sony Music from 2005 until 2008.
Walk has stated that he first wanted to work in the music industry when he was eight years old, when he listened to the Boston pop music station WRKO on an old transistor radio. Walk started out as a college marketing representative for Sony Music while he was attending Boston University's School of Management.
In 1990, Walk took on a full-time position at Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music, as a marketing and promotion manager. His first job was to work with the New Kids on the Block over their first days on their local promotion, trying to break them into the mainstream. During his time at Columbia he became vice president for promotion at the label, and was profiled by the New York Times as one of the music industry's "young guns" in 1998. At Columbia he worked directly with Destiny's Child and Beyoncé Knowles,Will Smith, Maxwell, John Legend, Mariah Carey, The Fugees, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, John Mayer and the later careers of Bruce Springsteen and Aerosmith.
He was promoted to executive vice president, promotion, in 2000 from the position of senior vice president of pop promotion. In 2004, he was promoted to executive vice president of creative marketing and Promotion at Columbia where he was in charge of developing strategies in non-traditional marketing areas, along with licensing and partnering deals. He was also the supervisor for all video and radio advertising the company implemented. In an interview, he said, "The music business will always be based on hit songs and artists ... But you have to make different types of deals to make consumers aware of them." Part of what he did in his position was to work towards the legitimizing of music downloads as a source of revenue and distribution method, working with early download platforms to determine how the music industry could utilize the new technology.
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