Stringer: a chance to create a new model: UK head aims to build fresh template for company.(News)

Rob Stringer is looking to break the mould of British record companies as the first chairman of the industry's biggest new player.

"This is an opportunity to build a completely different type of company," he says. "We have an opportunity to reinvent. I have enormous respect for the other companies in the UK, but this is an opportunity to do something different."

Talking for the first time about his new role, Stringer says the two companies are coming together in the best of shape--and with an impressive release schedule ahead of it as it moves towards Christmas (see left).

But Stringer's excitement at the scale of the challenge ahead of him and his new combined operation is clearly tempered by his determination to oversee the bringing together of the two companies in the right way. "I am very sensitive about merging both cultures carefully and getting to know people at BMG," he says. "It is absolutely uppermost in my mind."

He declines to talk in any degree of detail about the process which lies ahead, besides suggesting that back office will be the first area which will be looked at.

"I want everybody to focus on Christmas and I would like there to be a new company in 2005," he says. "This is going to be a strong, streamlined company with an incredible roster."

Stringer recognises that the strong ties he has with various executives within the BMG family will help the merger process, including Tim Bowen and Ged Doherty, who has most recently held the title of music division president. "I am very open minded and want to fully understand the BMG structure, because they have been doing great," he says.