In a shakeup to its executive ranks, the Recording Academy’s chief awards officer for the Grammys, Bill Freimuth, has exited the company, according to a Sunday night report from Billboard.
Freimuth has led the awards process for the Grammys since 2004, including handling the nominations process and the eligibility rules, both of which have come under criticism in recent years and led to new reforms.
Also exiting are the Recording Academy’s VP of communications, Lourdes Lopez, and chief marketing and innovations officer, Lisa Farris. Lopez and Farris’ last day was Friday.
Reps for the Recording Academy did not return TheWrap’s request for comment.
The changes come as Harvey Mason Jr. officially took on the role of president and CEO of the Recording Academy in May before transitioning to simply CEO, appointing Valeisha Butterfield Jones and Panos A. Panay as co-presidents in June. Panay takes on his role on Monday.
Lopez began her tenure at the Recording Academy in 2002 and was promoted to VP of communications in July 2019. Farris joined as chief digital officer in 2019 and took on her latest role in August 2020.
The rules to the awards themselves have changed drastically in the last few months, with the Grammys overhauling its voting policies and eliminating its controversial anonymous nominating committees — rules that led The Weeknd to boycott the Grammys after he was snubbed last year. Among other changes, the Grammys ceremony will now have an inclusion rider to boost diversity for employees working on the broadcast. Additionally, more than half of the Recording Academy’s 2,710 new members recently invited to the organization come from underrepresented groups.
Billboard first reported the news.
