Rob Stringer | No 19

Label executive: chairman, Sony Music Label Group Seven record ­companies ­competed over the rights to Glee, but Columbia/ Sony Music won because only their CEO, former ­teenage punk and lifelong Clash fan Rob Stringer, believed how huge it would be – and he was right. The show ­premiered on 19 May 2009, and in its pilot episode the cast sang Journey's Don't Stop Believin' . The track was immediately released through iTunes, where it sold 177,000 downloads in a week – far ­outstripping anything Journey had ever managed. A more ­conclusive ­demonstration of Stringer's skill with artists and ­marketing is hard to imagine.