Rudi Gassner; Was Set to Lead BMG Music as Chief Executive

Rudi Gassner, one of the world’s top music executives, died of an apparent heart attack Saturday morning while vacationing in Germany, just days before he was to take over as chief executive of record giant BMG. He was 58.

Gassner’s death leaves a huge void at an especially fragile time for the turbulent music company, home to such artists as Christina Aguilera, Puff Daddy, Santana, Whitney Houston, the Dave Matthews Band and Sarah McLachlan.

BMG and its German corporate parent, Bertelsmann AG, have been in serious merger talks with British music giant EMI that would create the world’s largest music company. Gassner was considered key to those talks, and it is unclear how his death will affect a deal.

A BMG spokeswoman declined to comment on how Gassner’s death affects corporate matters or who his possible successor may be, saying that company officials were still too shocked by his death to think about those issues.

Gassner was to take charge of a company at the center of one of the music industry’s biggest controversies following Bertelsmann Chairman Thomas Middelhoff’s decision to align BMG with Napster, the computer file-sharing service. BMG broke ranks with the rest of the industry, which has been using every legal means available to stop Napster and halt the kind of music piracy that many executives believe represents the single biggest threat to their business.

The death of Gassner, a former professional soccer player who was considered to be in exceptional shape for his age, stunned colleagues.

“He was the most fit person I know. He had no fat on him at all. This is unbelievable,” BMG Chairman Michael Dornemann said. Dornemann said Gassner jogged six miles daily, and each summer joined a group of friends for a strenuous weeklong bicycle ride in the Alps.

According to BMG officials, Gassner and his wife, Brook, were jogging Saturday morning on a path near their vacation home in Sammmerberg near Gassner’s hometown of Munich.

The two reached a small church about halfway along their route when the couple sat on a bench, where Gassner collapsed and died in his wife’s arms. Gassner and his wife have three young children, ages 5, 4 and 1. Gassner also has an adult daughter from a previous marriage.

Gassner had been scheduled to take over as chief executive of BMG on Jan. 2. The ascension would have fulfilled Gassner’s longtime dream of running the company after successfully building BMG’s international business. It also marked a stunning turnaround in a career that was nearly over just a few months earlier.

Last January, Gassner was forced out of the company after clashing with former BMG Chief Executive Strauss Zelnick, who was Gassner’s longtime nemesis within BMG, as well as Dornemann, who, despite the tensions, remained his close friend.

Gassner sent Middelhoff a fiery e-mail explaining why he was leaving and singling out Zelnick for criticism. In particular, he criticized the way Zelnick awkwardly replaced music legend Clive Davis as head of Arista Records. He also blamed Zelnick for a dispute involving both the pop group N’Sync and the Zomba label, a BMG affiliate.

But this fall, Middelhoff unexpectedly invited Gassner back to replace both Dornemann and Zelnick in November to rejuvenate a company Middelhoff believes is under-performing.

Gassner had long been considered one of the industry’s top international executives. On Saturday, Dornemann recalled that he lured Gassner to the company in 1986 from PolyGram after BMG bought RCA records when he realized the company lacked a seasoned international executive.

Dornemann said one of Gassner’s biggest innovations was taking artists popular in their native countries and broadening their appeal. One of his biggest successes, he said, was Italian singer Eros Ramazzotti, who is popular through Europe.

In 13 years, Gassner tripled BMG Entertainment International’s revenue, with the number of operating companies outside of the U.S. growing from 14 to 53, featuring more than 200 labels.

His Gassner’s international work became the subject of a prestigious case study at the Harvard Business School, where Gassner developed close ties and became an advisor to the dean of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy JFK School of Government. Talk show star Oprah Winfrey even recruited him Gassner as a guest for a class she taught at Northwestern University.

Born Rudolf L. Gassner, he lived in Connecticut, where he is expected to be buried. In addition to his wife, Gassner is survived by children Claudia, Beatrice, Alexandra and Maximilian along with his mother, Mathilde.