The biggest music label in the country, Universal Music Australia (UMA), has announced a significant restructuring of its senior leadership team following the sudden exit of one of the company’s joint managing directors amid a review into the organisation’s culture.

This week staff at UMA were blindsided by the news that Darren Aboud, who had served in the role of joint managing director of the label since 2019 alongside Michael Taylor, would be leaving his position. Aboud’s sudden exit, confirmed by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, triggered a widespread restructuring of the company’s leadership team.

In a memo sent to staff on Thursday, UMA (a division of Universal Music Group) announced details of the staff changes, but gave no explanation for Aboud’s exit. According to the memo, the restructure plan was developed by UMA’s president George Ash and the outgoing managing director of EMI Australia, a subsidiary of UMA, John O’Donnell.

Staff were told that O’Donnell would be retiring later this year, and would be replaced by Mark Holland, a widely respected figure in the music industry, who currently serves as the general manager of A&R at EMI Australia, working with artists including Troye Sivan, The Avalanches and Gretta Ray. Another key promotion announced was that of Nicole Richards, the current general manager of Island Records Australia, another UMA subsidiary that features Australian musicians like Dean Lewis, Matt Corby and Tame Impala on its roster. Richards has been promoted to co-managing director at Island.

The memo sent to staff made no mention of Aboud or whether his role would be filled, leaving Taylor as the sole managing director of UMA.

In June The Music Network reported that Eric Hutcherson, Universal Music Group’s executive vice president and international head of HR, flew from California to Sydney to speak to staff as part of an internal review into workplace culture. The internal review follows an earlier external investigation first reported by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age last year. Both investigations were sparked by allegations of bullying, harassment, racism, homophobia, discrimination, and sexual assault at the company.

In an email to staff last July UMA president Ash addressed the allegations, including an allegation of inappropriate comments directed at him. “As the leader of this company I take full responsibility for creating a respectful workplace culture for everyone,” he said.

“With respect to my own behaviour, it is particularly painful to realise now that what I intended as jokes were unacceptable comments that made some of you uncomfortable.