Steve Stoute’s role at the intersection of business and popular culture has made him a lot of high-powered friends.

Steve Stoute gets a lot of phone calls — entrepreneurs pitching ideas, fellow chief executives looking for advice, Jay-Z.

One title doesn’t fully capture what Mr. Stoute, 54, does. In fact, he has a few: chief executive and founder of UnitedMasters, a music distribution company, and Translation, a marketing agency. But those also don’t reflect the scope of his influence across the worlds of entertainment, advertising, technology and politics.

Many high-powered people — including Adam Silver, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association; Lorraine Twohill, the chief marketing officer at Google; and Jared Kushner, the investor and presidential son-in-law — go to the former music label executive for guidance about things such as their next business move, how to navigate the current political climate or where pop culture is headed.

How did he get here?

Leave a Reply