Executive Suite

Talk about coming full circle. After taking EMI Music Publishing from fourth place in market share to first during a 17-year run as the company's chief executive, then exiting to run second-ranked competitor Sony/ATV in 2007, Martin Bandier, 71, is back to helm the house he helped build. It was a pricey reunion and required purchasing EMI Publishing for $2.2 billion, a bill footed by an investment consortium that includes Sony/ATV, the estate of Michael Jackson, the Blackstone Group's GSO Capital Partners and David Geffen. But with it, Bandier buys a safer bet -- namely, the ability to monetize music rights without being drained by a record company burdened with the costly task of breaking new acts (EMI was split in two, with its recorded music arm sold to Universal Music Group in September).