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People on the move: HomeTown Ticketing and more…

Featured image credit: Green Man festival’s Fiona Stewart and HomeTown Ticketing’s Matt Davis

We round up the latest movements from the ticketing sector and associated industries. And on this International Women's Day, we celebrate a key woman in the UK live music scene...

Fiona Stewart (pictured left) is set to stand down as an executive board member of the Concert Promoters Association (CPA), after nine years in the role.

Stewart is the owner and managing director of the 25,000-capacity Green Man festival in Wales and was the first woman to hold this position at the CPA. She will use her time to grow the Green Man Trust, the charitable arm of Green Man festival, which has supported more than 10,000 people since it launched in 2013.

Craig Stanley, chief executive of Marshall Arts Management and executive board member of the CPA said: “Fiona is a fantastic ambassador for the live music industry and her departure will be a great loss to the CPA Executive. As the driving force behind one of the truly great independent festivals in the UK, she could always be relied upon to add to the discussion in a positive and constructive way. She continues to be a fantastic role model for female executives entering the business and I wish her every success in all her future ventures.”

HomeTown Ticketing, a provider of digital ticketing for schools, districts, conferences and associations, has named Matt Davis (pictured right) as the company’s new chief executive. 

Davis has succeeded Ryan Hart, who is set to continue in his role of chairman of the board, and was previously CEO of Getaroom(.com) and an executive at RealPage. 

“In just a short time, HomeTown Ticketing has built the premier all-in-one event management and productivity platform, and I’m very excited to lead the team through this next chapter of growth,” said Davis. 

In addition the the new CEO, HomeTown also announced that three new executives have joined the team. Prishant Mantrao has joined as chief technology officer, Russell Hertzberg has joined as senior vice-president of product and Donnie Schemetti has been made senior vice-president of marketing. 

Hertzberg and Schemetti are the co-founders of Ticket Spicket, which HomeTown Ticketing acquired in October last year. 

London-based Primary Talent International has once more become an independent music talent agency, and as result, has reshuffled its team. 

In 2020, the company sold to ICM Partners which was then acquired by Creative Artists Agency. The transaction to become an independent company was led by managing partner and chief executive Matt Bates and former ICM founding partner and chief operating officer Rick Levy, who will continue to act as a senior advisor to Primary. 

Bates will continue to serve as managing partner and CEO, while agent Ben Winchester will continue to serve as a board member alongside Bates and Levy. 

Primary agents Laetitia Descouens, Sally Dunstone, Martje Kremers and Ed Sellers have become partners. The company also said that agent Simon Clarkson, who will be based in Los Angeles, will also join the team. 

Artist agency Wasserman Music has promoted seven members of its global team to agents, including four responsible agents, two new tour marketing agents and one fairs and festivals agent. 

Eli Gelernter, Logan Handelsman, Lindsay McDowell and Yitzi Peetluk have been made responsible agents, while Jess Bumsted has become fairs and festival agent. Mary Kate Carragher and Kaela Ismael have been made tour marketers. 

Additionally, Sara Pullman has been promoted to the role of vice-president of operations and Chappel McCollister has become Wasserman’s senior vice-president of business development. 

Do you have news of an appointment that we should know about? Get in touch by emailing news.editor@theticketingbusiness.com and we’ll include it in our next round-up.