When he was just 21, Jay Boberg (113th AMP) created International Record Syndicate (IRS) with Police band manager Miles Copeland. "We were just two guys in a room starving," Boberg laughs, recalling his early years with the company that by the late 1980s had become the most prominent independent music label in North America. As co-owner and president of IRS, Boberg launched influential alternative rock bands such as R.E.M., the English Beat, and the Fine Young Cannibals. Boberg signed on as president of MCA Music Publishing in 1994 and in 1995 was named president of MCA Records, a division of Universal Music Group.

Candace Bond (MBA '92) recalls one of her earliest childhood memories: watching a stack of 45s spin on her parents' record player and dancing to the music of artists such as Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Jackson Five, and the Temptations. Nearly three decades later, as a Motown vice president and head of the label's $48 million catalog business, Bond is introducing the same Motown sound she enjoyed as a child to a new generation of listeners. "This music is such a big part of so many people's lives that I feel it's important to keep the artists' legacies alive," says Bond, who, prior to her Motown career, served as a financial analyst for several corporations and investment firms. "The songs are as fresh today as they were 25 years ago."

Just after graduating from college in 1987, Paul Knutson (HBS '98) went to work for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Rounder Records, where he eventually became general manager. "When I started, very little work was being performed with the assistance of computers," Knutson says. Thanks to his technical know-how, Rounder, which is committed to documenting quality grassroots music from all around the world, has greatly enhanced its operational efficiency, a key to its competitive health as a small but highly regarded independent label. Knutson, who still keeps in touch with his former employer, says he plans to return to the music industry after graduation.

For William Roedy (MBA '79), serving as president, international, of MTV Networks allows him to combine his two loves: music and world travel. Indeed, Roedy, who began his career as an account manager for HBO, says, "I virtually live on an airplane." The thrill of promoting the biggest and trendiest pop TV channel in the world makes it all worth it, however. "We hooked up MTV in Berlin in November 1989," he says. "Forty-eight hours later, the Wall fell." Coincidence? "All over the world, MTV does play a hand in the passion of the people," he says with a twinkle in his eye.

As president and CEO of BMG Entertainment North America, a division of the world's third-largest media company, Germany's Bertelsmann AG, Strauss Zelnick (MBA/JD '83) manages the company's core record labels, as well as its distribution, music publishing, merchandising, special products, and television divisions. "I'm responsible for nearly $2 billion in revenues," he says. Previously, Zelnick held prominent positions in the movie industry, including a stint as president of Twentieth Century Fox. He decided to try running a small business in 1993, signing on briefly with the entertainment software company Crystal Dynamics before leaving for BMG in 1994. "I'm much more suited to big corporate life," says Zelnick.