On June 1, former Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) director Ann Tausis will join Kobalt Neighbouring Rights Limited (KNRL) as managing director.

KNRL focuses on neighboring rights within the industry, offering services to clients through the use of secondary data to check accuracy of collecting societies.

Tausis was previously director of European regional administration at UMPG after a seven-year stint as global copyright director. Her 20 years of experience in rights management administration will cross over into her position as Director at KNRL, taking on day-to-day operations of boosting staffing as well as lead of the neighboring rights industry at policy level.

In under 18 months, KNRL has accumulated many prominent artists such as Bob Dylan, Bjork, Gotye and the estate of Michael Jackson. KNRL is a part of Kobalt Music Group, which in 2012 purchased digital distributor AWAL, and added two new divisions — Kobalt Artist and Label Services and KNRL — to it’s expanding services. [Billboard.biz]