Rod Riley has been named president and CEO of Word Entertainment, Warner Music Group's (WMG) Christian music division.

Riley has served as chief operating officer of Word Entertainment since 2008, and has been responsible for all the business operations of Word Label Group, Word Music Publishing, Word Distribution and Word Music. Since joining Word Entertainment in 2005 as senior vice president of marketing, he has been instrumental in revitalizing the company's staff and artist roster as well as launching or acquiring businesses in merchandising, e-commerce, artist booking, touring, brand management and sponsorship.

In his new role, Riley will oversee Word's entire operation, including artists and repertoire (A&R), sales and marketing, music publishing, distribution, church resources and artist services. Riley succeeds Mark Bright and will report directly to John Esposito, president and CEO of Warner Music Nashville (WMN), the Nashville-based music operations of WMG.

One of Nashville's most acclaimed producers, Bright will continue to work with WMN under the terms of his existing production deal with Warner Bros. Nashville.

"I am deeply honored to accept this role as we prepare to enter Word's 60th year of making Christian music," Riley said. "It's been a great pleasure to work as part of the Word organization, especially since it has meant seeing this team bring about consistently incredible results-both in our established businesses as well as in all of the new areas we have entered."

Mike Curb, chairman of Word Entertainment, added: "I believe that Rod Riley is the perfect choice to lead Word into the next decade. He has the vision and the experience to meet this major challenge."

Prior to joining Word, Riley served as senior director of sales at Provident Music, Sony Music's Christian music label. In 1999, while still with Sony, Riley and his wife, Susan, launched Fervent Records-a record label that now has artists such as BarlowGirl, Francesca Battistelli, Group 1 Crew, Sidewalk Prophets, PureNRG and Big Daddy Weave. Originally distributed through Sony, Riley sold Fervent to Word Entertainment in 2005.

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