Michael Stewart

Michael Stewart was an American music executive. He began his career as an independent music publisher, then served as president of United Artists Music and vice president of United Artists Pictures. Stewart is credited with bringing the Beatles to United Artists for films, recordings and publishing. After resigning from United Artists, he joined with the West German firm Bertelsmann to form Interworld Music Group. Stewart was later the president of CBS Music Publishing, and he served as the consultant to the MCA Music Division.

Life and career A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Stewart earned an aeronautical engineering degree from Johns Hopkins University. During this period, he created the music companies Korwin Music and Dominion Music. He then held the position of executive vice president of the Music and Record Division. In that role, he supervised around numerous film soundtracks, including A Hard Day’s Night, Rocky and various James Bond film scores. In 1982, he negotiated the CBS acquisition of MGM/United Artists music publishing division, which included Big 3 Print. He sold Big 3 to Columbia Pictures Publications. That year, Stewart and his wife Gabriela formed the film company Eastern Epic in India, which produced films for the Asian market.