Rick Stevens
CEO / Managing Partner
Rick Stevens is a longtime entertainment and private equity executive who has played top industry roles over the years.
Prior to founding Cygnus, Stevens was CEO of Y Entertainment, the entertainment acquisition and operations arm of private equity firm, Yucaipa. Founded by Stevens and Ronald W. Burkle, the company acquired or started and operates music, comedy, literary, and television talent agencies, tv production, and talent management entities. In music, representing stars like Billy Joel, Metallica, Linkin Park, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Hall & Oates, Rod Stewart, and many others; in TV and Comedy (Julie Chen, Heidi Klum, Colin Quinn, and Samantha Bee), Lifestyle (Curtis Stone, Gail Simmons, Nina Garcia) and Literary. . . key components of what is today, industry giant, Independent Artist Group.
Early in his career, as an A & R head and major record company president, Stevens was one of the most successful, hit makers of his era. He later founded and built movie soundtrack giant, Summa Music Group, sold to BMG, and executed a rollup of Hollywood motion picture and tv post-production companies, becoming the largest indy operation in the US industry.
Stevens founded Internet Holdings Group in the early days of the web, launching the first-ever internet site to sell entertainment products online and also led visionary investments in companies like Xing Technology, inventor/developer of online streaming audio and video technology which disrupted both the music and television industries and empowered giants like Spotify and Apple Music, forever changing the music industry and launching a revolution in the way we consume tv and movies today. Stevens also owned the legendary music production giant, Record Plant for over 25 years, exiting in 2017.