We round up the latest movements from the ticketing ecosystem…
TEG has announced that Toby Leighton-Pope will take on the role of managing director for the newly formed TEG Europe.
Leighton-Pope will oversee the expansion of TEG Europe, which has amalgamated TEG’s UK-based live entertainment, ticketing, venue, digital and data operations.
TEG Europe comprises TEG Live Europe; ticketing platform Ticketek; TEG’s data science and analytics business Ovation; indie rock & roll night club brand Propaganda and TEG Venues. The new organisation was formed last week.
You can read the full story here.
Neil Jones has announced that he will be joining the European festivals team at AEG Presents as senior ticketing manager.
Jones will begin his new role at the end of August and is joining the live entertainment company from the Royal Opera House.
He wrote on LinkedIn: “It’s been an absolute privilege to lead the ticketing team at the Royal Opera House and we’ve achieved some great things in the last 4 years, particularly in such difficult circumstances for the arts.”
Elsewhere at AEG Presents, Reeves Price (pictured) has been appointed vice-president of festivals. He will report to AEG-owned Goldenvoice chief operating officer, and COO of festivals, AEG Presents, Melissa Ormond.
Price said: “I’m excited to bring my knowledge and passion for festivals to AEG Presents’ incredible portfolio. I’ve really enjoyed working with Melissa on BUKU and Hangout and am looking forward to working closely with her and the company into the future.”
Ormond added: “I’m thrilled that Reeves is expanding his role with the AEG Presents Festivals team. His operational expertise will be of tremendous benefit to the shows in our portfolio.”
Music Venue Trust (MVT), a charity that represents grassroots music venues in the UK, has made five permanent staff appointments.
Rebecca Walker, who has been on a freelance contract to coordinate the National Lottery’s Revive Live since March 2021, has been made live projects coordinator. Walker had previously spent 11 years at Sheffield’s Leadmill venue.
Jay Taylor and Sophie Asquith have also been given permanent roles as MVT Coordinators (England). Taylor and Asquith became freelance coordinators in April 2020.
Matthew Otridge has been announced as MVT’s lead coordinator on the ‘Own Our Venues’ initiative, while Chris Sherrington, who held a freelance position of MVT coordinator for North East England, has been appointed policy and strategy support officer.
Eventbrite has brought in Sapna Nair as managing director and vice-president of engineering in India.
Nair will report directly to Eventbrite’s chief technology officer, Vivek Sagi, and has over 25 years of experience in scaling high-performing engineering organisations.
Sagi said: “I am thrilled to welcome Sapna to the Eventbrite team. Her customer-centric and innovative approach, deep understanding of technology platforms and track record of building global engineering organisations will be invaluable as we accelerate our recruiting efforts, continue to scale Eventbrite globally, and build more best-in-class products to empower our creators and delight consumers.”
Elsewhere, Steve Jenner, who has spent the last decade making festivals cashless with RFID, has announced that his last festival will be the upcoming Boomtown. Jenner is now focusing on emerging Web 3/NFT opportunities.
He has set up a new venture named MetaFests to do this, which has just secured its first round of investment.
Live Nation has appointed Mark Vaughn as vice-president of talent and artist development for Australia and New Zealand.
Vaughn has spent most of his career working in Europe and was previously based in Oslo as a partner/promoter at All Things Live.
He has relocated to Melbourne and started in his new role alongside the live entertainment giant’s existing promoter team.
Do you have news of an appointment that we should know about? Get in touch by emailing [email protected] and we’ll include it in our next Wednesday round-up…
Image: Courtesy of AEG Presents