Spotify Hires Condé Nast Entertainment’s Sahar Elhabashi as VP of Content Business

By Todd Spangler

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Sahar Elhabashi is leaving Condé Nast after more than six years to join Dawn Ostroff, her former boss at the Condé Nast Entertainment division, at Spotify, Variety has learned.

Elhabashi had been serving as interim president for CNE after Ostroff’s exit this summer to become ’s chief content officer .

Elhabashi will join Spotify on Dec. 10 as VP, head of content business. Sources said her role at the music-streaming service will be similar to her EVP/chief operating officer position at Condé Nast Entertainment, where she was Ostroff’s business partner as the two of them built the CNE division from scratch.

A Condé Nast rep said the company plans to announce a new head of CNE shortly.

Elhabashi joined Condé Nast Entertainment as COO in April 2012, after serving as chief operating officer of Discovery Networks International. Prior to joining Discovery in September 2007, she had worked at Viacom’s MTV Networks for 15 years, most recently as EVP of strategy and digital media for MTV Networks International. Earlier in her career, Elhabashi was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group and an analyst at Salomon Brothers.

Separately, Fred Santarpia, Condé Nast’s chief digital officer who also played a key role in building Condé Nast Entertainment, departed the company earlier this month .