Hein van der Ree (55) has been director of Epitaph Europe BV since 1995 and he has previously held positions at Hollywood Records International, Phonogram Records UK and Island Music Publishing UK. Van der Ree is a member of the board of industry organizations Impala and Merlin. Both organizations represent the interests of several thousand independent music rights holders. Van der Ree has the knowledge and experience to lead Buma/Stemra into the future and the Board sees in him the ideal candidate for the position. The board is also delighted about the proposed appointment of Cees van Rij to his new position.

Hein van der Ree: "The 18,000 lyricists, composers and publishers who comprise the membership of Buma/Stemra play an important cultural and economic role and it will be my task to represent their interests in this rapidly changing music industry to the best of my ability. I am very excited to start working with the team at Buma/Stemra. In particular, I look forward to working with Cees van Rij and Director General Affairs Wieger Ketellapper.”
The Board owes much gratitude to the current CEO, Cees Vervoord, for his dedication and tremendous contribution to the development of the organization in the fifteen years that he has served Buma/Stemra. Cees was elected to the position of President of the executive board of BIEM in 1999 and served this organisation until 2004. In 2004 Cees was also elected to the position of Chairman of the Board of CISAC and he was awarded the “Socan Outstanding International Partner Award 2009”. SOCAN is the Canadian rights society for authors and composers. On both the national and international stage, Cees has raised and passionately fought for the many important issues which face the Buma/Stemra members. He has been a true champion for authors rights.

About Buma/Stemra

Buma/Stemra is the collecting society for music in the Netherlands. Buma/Stemra represents the interests of music authors worldwide and promotes Dutch music as an international product. Music authors can transfer the commercial exploitation of their music copyright to Buma/Stemra. Keeping track of who is using their music can be a lot of work for music authors to do theirselves. Buma/Stemra will do this job for them and makes sure music authors receive remuneration for the use of their creations. One of the things we do to ensure this is by signing agreements with music users.

Note for editors (not for publication)

For more information please contact:
Buma/Stemra; Antoinette de Ridder
Telephone:+ 00 31 (0) 23) 799 75 80 / Cell Phone: + 00 31 (0)6 – 55 834 796
E-mail: antoinette.de.ridder@bumastemra.nl