New hires to Roblox’s global partnerships team include Spotify’s former Head of Music Business Development, Karibi Dagogo-Jack, and Meta’s former Head of Emerging Content, Todd Lichten.
Roblox and its hiring
Roblox has appointed Spotify’s former head of music business development, Karibi Dagogo-Jack, as its new head of music partnerships. Dagogo-Jack fills the position vacated by Jonathan Vlassopulos, Roblox’s former global head of music, who left the company in April.
Dagogo-Jack brings a decade of experience in the music business. In his new role at Roblox, he will oversee and build relationships between Roblox and artists, labels, managers, publishers and producers.
At Spotify, Dagogo-Jack was in charge of partnerships, strategy, operations and team management for playlists, artist and label services. Prior to that, he worked with major record labels and music companies such as Warner Music Group, where he spent four years as a senior analyst; Universal Music Group, where he was in charge of new media business development; and Interscope Records, where he was Head of New Business Development.
In May, Spotify entered the metaverse with the launch of Spotify Island on Roblox.
This new appointment is part of a broader expansion of Roblox’s global partnerships team, which includes two new external hires and three new appointments within the existing Roblox team.
Dagogo-Jack joins Todd Lichten, Head of Entertainment Partnerships; Winnie Burke, Head of Fashion and Beauty Partnerships; Hayden Walling, Head of Sports Partnerships; and Arvind Jayaram, Head of Account Management, Partnerships.
Lichten was formerly head of emerging content at Meta, and will be responsible for building strategic relationships with film and TV studios, talent and digital media brands as head of entertainment partnerships at Roblox.
Winnie Burke, formerly head of sales at Roblox, has been with the platform for more than seven years. In her new role as head of fashion and beauty partnerships, she helped secure recent fashion brand partnerships with Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Nike, VANS, Tommy Hilfiger and Givenchy Beauty.
Heading up the Roblox sports team is Hayden Walling, who is responsible for bringing leagues, athletes and sports teams to the platform. He joined Roblox last year and has launched metaverse experiences with the NFL, McLaren Racing, NASCAR and Wimbledon.
Prior to joining Roblox, Walling spent 10 years at Nike, helping the sports apparel giant gamify its products and partner the Nike/Jordan brands with gaming partners such as 2k, EA, Epic, Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox.
Last but not least, Head of Account Management, Partnerships, Arvind Jayaram, will lead a team that “provides partners with best practices and tools to bring their IP to the [Roblox] platform.” His team has previously helped partners launch Roblox experiences, such as Gucci Garden, In the Heights, Vans World, Nikeland and NFL Tycoon.
“We’ve seen great success with major brands coming to the Roblox platform, and our partnership work continues to accelerate as they experiment with new formats, launch persistent social spaces, discover new revenue streams and push the boundaries of creativity,” said Christina Wootton, VP of Global Partnerships.
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