Former Spotify Exec. Sulinna Ong named U2’s new management partner

Sulinna Ong has been named as Management Partner for U2, a newly created role where she will join the band’s managers Irving and Jeffrey Azoff.

“What’s struck us about Sulinna is the flair, finesse, and clarity she brings to both the art and the audience,” Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. said in a joint statement.

“She understands what we’ve built and where we want to take it. We’re delighted to have her as a Management Partner alongside Irving and Jeffrey.”

Ong enters this role after seven years at Spotify, where she initially joined as Head of Artist and Label Services in April 2019 and was later promoted to Global Head of Editorial in October 2021.

“My years at Spotify have been a significant part of my career and I leave the team there with enormous respect for what we have built,” Ong said.

“U2 are one of the most important bands in the world, artistically and culturally, and have used their platform with purpose across every chapter of their career.”

“The opportunity to work alongside them, and alongside Irving and Jeffrey, who have shaped what modern artist management is, was one I couldn’t pass up,” she added. “We have ambitious plans for what’s next, and I’m ready to get to work.”

Ong established her career with a wide breadth of roles across the music industry, including early career positions at Sony Music and Live Nation. Before joining Spotify in 2019, she served as Global Vice President of Artist Marketing at Deezer beginning in 2016.

Ong was profiled in The Wall Street Journal in 2025 under the headline “The Woman with the Most Valuable Ears in Music.”

She has been named to both Billboard’s Power Players list and as a Billboard Women in Music executive honoree for multiple consecutive years, and was also included in Vogue’s 25 most influential women.

“The band made the right call,” Irving Azoff said. “Sulinna is one of the best executives in music, with a career built on judgement, taste and an instinct for where culture is now and where it’s going.

“Jeffrey and I are proud to have her alongside us.”

After nearly a decade with manager Guy Oseary, U2 signed with Irving and Jeffrey Azoff‘s Full Stop Management in 2022. The company‘s clients include Harry Styles, the Eagles and Cardi B, among others.

The Azoffs led the band through its Sphere residency in Las Vegas, a venue widely regarded as having set a new benchmark for live performance.

2026 has seen a resurgence of activity from U2, with the band surprise-releasing two EPs— “Days of Ash” in February and the “Easter Lily” in April. Their full studio album is expected later this year, being their first since “Songs of Experience” in 2017.

Drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who sat out the Sphere residency due to injury and surgery, returned to performing with the band in May 2025 and has been recording for the upcoming album.