LA Reid’s Hitco announces new president

LA Reid’s company Hitco has named Joel Klaiman as its new president.

He was most recently EVP/GM at Columbia Records, where he was for six years. He will remain based in New York.

Before that Klaiman was EVP of promotion and artist development at Republic Records and had stints at Elektra, Sony label 550 and Epic Records.

He’s worked with Adele, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, One Direction, Amy Winehouse, Taylor Swift, Drake, Pharrell Williams, John Legend and Daft Punk.

Hitco, based in Los Angeles, was launched in January by Red with entrepreneur Charles Goldstuck after raising $75 million from investors.

Reid headed Epic Records until May 2017 after a co-worker accused him of sexual harassment.

At Epic he signed DJ Khaled, Future, Fifth Harmony and Mariah Carey.

Earlier, as co-founder of LaFace Records, he launched the superstar careers of Usher, TLC, Toni Braxton, OutKast and P!NK.

Hitco focuses on the creation, production, recording, distribution and exploitation of recorded music and recording artist services.

Its roster includes Big Boi, Dinah Jane of Fifth Harmony and SAINT JHN.

In a joint statement, Reid and Goldstuck said, “Joel is an experienced, world class executive who has mastered all facets of the music business.

“With Joel joining our leadership team, we are now well poised to take the next step in our growth cycle.

“We’re excited that he will help drive our efforts as we move toward building a world class music enterprise.”