Luke Wood is an American music executive and musician, known as being the president of both

Beats Electronics Beats Electronics LLC (also known as Beats by Dr. Dre, or simply Beats by Dre) is an American consumer audio products manufacturer headquartered in Culver City, California. The company was founded by music producer Dr. Dre and record company exec ...

from 2012 to 2010 and

DGC Records DGC Records (an initialism for the David Geffen Company) was an American record label that operated as a division of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, which is owned by the Universal Music Group. History DGC Records was launched in 1990 as a subsi ...

from 2007 to 2010. He was also a guitarist for the 1990s alt-rock bands

Sammy Sammy is a nickname, frequently for people named Samuel, and also an English spelling of the Arabic name Sami. People Music *Sammy Adams (born 1987), American rapper and songwriter * Sammy Cahn (1913-1993), American songwriter * Sammy Davis Jr. ...

and

Girls Against Boys Girls Against Boys is a post-hardcore band which formed in Washington, D.C. and subsequently relocated to New York City shortly after their formation in 1989. The band released albums on the labels Adult Swim, Touch and Go Records, Geffen Record ...

Early life and education

Luke grew up in Pittsford, a suburb of

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

, and graduated from

Wilson Magnet High School Joseph C. Wilson Magnet High School, sometimes referred to as Wilson Magnet or just Wilson, is a public high school in Rochester, New York. It is in the Rochester City School District. Performance Wilson Magnet performs better than other high sc ...

in 1987. He earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree with a major in American Studies in 1991 from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

and is a member of the university's Board of Trustees.

Career

Prior to Beats Electronics, Wood was chief strategy officer of Interscope Geffen A&M and president of its rock imprint

. As DGC’s president, Wood was responsible for all

Artists & Repertoire Artists and repertoire (colloquially abbreviated to A&R) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists (singers, instrumentalist ...

(A&R) and marketing decisions and for developing and guiding the label’s artists including

Weezer Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Scott Shriner (bass guitar, keyboards, backing ...

All-American Rejects The All-American Rejects is an American rock band from Stillwater, Oklahoma, formed in 1999.Rise Against, and

Yeah Yeah Yeahs The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an American indie rock band formed in New York City in 2000. The group is composed of vocalist and pianist Karen O (born Karen Lee Orzolek), guitarist and keyboardist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase. They are compl ...

. Before working in A&R, Wood was involved in the firm’s marketing and publicity. In 1991, Wood served as a director of publicity for

Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and h ...

, where he represented bands including

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

and Sonic Youth. He later served as director of marketing for Geffen Records and as vice president of A&R at DreamWorks Records. Wood joined Interscope Records in 2003 (during its merger with DreamWorks) as executive vice president of A&R, where he signed artists such as Jimmy Eat World and Elliott Smith. He later became the President of DGC Records from 2007 to 2010. In September 2014, Wood was added to Fender Guitar’s Board of Directors.

Beats Electronics

Wood joined Beats Electronics in February 2011 as president and COO, working directly with Dr. Dre and Iovine on product development and overseeing day-to-day operations at the company. Wood was instrumental in Beats Electronics’ acquisition of subscription music service MOG in July 2012 which was later launched into Beats Music in January 2014. Under Luke Wood’s leadership, in August 2014, Beats Electronics and Beats Music were acquired by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

for $3 billion. In April 2020, Wood stepped down as president of Beats Electronics.

Music career

Wood was guitarist for Sammy, a 1990s alt-rock band that released three albums: ''Debut Album'' (1994) and ''Kings of the Island Empire'' (1995), released by

Smells Like Records Smells Like Records is an independent record label based in Hoboken, New Jersey, formed by Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley in 1993. Groups that have recorded under the label include Blonde Redhead, Cat Power, The Raincoats, and The Rondelles. T ...

, and ''Tales of Great Neck Glory'' (1996), released by Geffen/DGC Records.

Personal life

Wood is married to Sophia Nardin, a writer he met during his time at Wesleyan University. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters. In August 2014, shortly after Apple's acquisition of Beats for $3 billion, Wood purchased Silvertop, a residence in Los Angeles, for $8.55 million. The house was designed by architect

John Lautner John Edward Lautner (16 July 1911 – 24 October 1994) was an American architect. Following an apprenticeship in the mid-1930s with the Taliesin Fellowship led by Frank Lloyd Wright, Lautner opened his own practice in 1938, where he worked for th ...

and built in 1956 for inventor Kenneth Reiner, who never occupied it as he eventually went bankrupt. The unfinished property was sold to a neighbouring couple in 1974, who made the house habitable and lived in it for forty years. When Wood acquired Silvertop, he commissioned architect Barbara Bestor, who had designed the Beats Electronics offices in LA, to renovate the property. The renovations were completed in 2018.

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Luke American music industry executives Living people American alternative rock musicians American rock guitarists American male guitarists Wesleyan University alumni A&R people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)