Madonna’s Maverick Records named a new president, the first hire for the label since ousting its co-founder, Freddie DeMann.
Bill Bennett, former chief of Geffen Records, was awarded the top spot by the Material Girl and her partner Guy Oseary. Bennett left Geffen last year after it was acquired by Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s Universal Music Group in its $10.4 billion buyout of Polygram.
“I’m a huge fan of Geffen records. Everything about them – their artists, their videos, their marketing. And Bill Bennett was behind it all,” said Guy Oseary, in an interview with The Post.
Maverick, home to such popular artists as Alanis Morisette, Prodigy and the chart-topping soundtrack to the hit movie “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,” has been in flux recently ever since Madonna’s long-time manager and co-founder of the label left in a bitter battle with the pop star. DeMann, who was head of the label since it bowed in 1992, was offered a $25 million buyout in December.
Still, the label has had a banner year, pulling in more than $750 million in revenue.
Bennett is expected to relieve Oseary of his day-to-day duties at Maverick and bring his 22 years of promotion and marketing experience to the label, a division of Warner Music Group. He was named president of Geffen in 1996, where he worked with Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, and Peter Gabriel.