CLIVE FISHER,
1952-2023

Clive Fisher, a longtime Universal Music executive in the U.K., has died following a period of ill health. He was 71.

Fisher spent 33 years at Universal, including 19 as director of legal & business affairs and six as EVP before retiring in 2011. Beginning in the 1970s, he struck deals with The Cure, The Jam, Elton John, Metallica and Queen, drove the company’s move into theater projects such as Mamma Mia! and was crucial in multiple mergers and acquisitions.

UMG Chairman and CEO Sir Lucian Grainge worked with Fisher for a quarter of a century. “Clive was a loyal colleague who loved people and enjoyed being in the company of characters,” he said. “Over the 25 years we worked together, he created a unique role for himself as a behind-the-scenes dealmaker who used his soft power and personal networks to close countless artist and label deals. Many times over the years someone would congratulate me for an executive’s work in making a deal. What they didn’t know was that it was Clive leveraging his relationships and his credibility within the legal community that was often the deciding factor. I will miss him greatly.”