Bhaskar Menon - Career Highlights

Career Highlights

As its first chairman and CEO, Menon formed EMI Music Worldwide in 1978, which brought together under his unified global management all of EMI Group's records and music publishing interests throughout the world. Among the world's foremost companies in the entertainment business, the multi-billion dollar EMI Music Group headquartered in London has operations in over 46 countries.

When Thorn Electrical Industries and EMI joined together to form Thorn EMI, one of the world's largest companies in their respective businesses, Menon was appointed as Director of the parent Board of the merged company at its inception in December 1979. He remained Chairman of EMI Music Worldwide and a Director of the Thorn EMI plc Board until he retired from the Group in 1990.

During his many years in the international music business, Menon was closely associated with the careers of a number of outstanding popular artists such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Queen, Glen Campbell, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner, Anne Murray, Peggy Lee, Paul McCartney & Wings, Duran Duran, Nancy Wilson, Iron Maiden, Diana Ross, Bob Seger, Carole King, and Steve Miller. He also worked with classical performers like Yehudi Menuhin, Herbert von Karajan, Maria Callas, Ricardo Muti, Itzhak Perlman, and Daniel Barenboim. In his recent memoirs, Duran Duran's Andy Taylor noted, "We decided to go with EMI, because we knew they had a global network and could launch bands across America. The company was headed by the legendary music industry figure, Bhaskar Menon, who'd presided over EMI during the rise of the Beatles." (Andy Taylor, quoted in "Wild Boy: My Life in Duran Duran")

As Chairman of EMI India, Menon was involved in the careers of that country's leading film, popular and classical singers and musicians. During his Chairmanship of EMI Films Inc, the company produced such masterpieces as the multi-Oscar winning "Deer Hunter", "Murder on the Orient Express", and "Passage to India".