Left to right: Angie Rho, Drew Praster, Jen Mitchell
We round up the latest movements from the ticketing sector and associated industries…
AEG Presents has named Angie Rho, a former Creative Artists Agency (CAA) executive, as senior vice-president, global touring.
Rho, who most recently served as head of business affairs at CAA, will have operational oversight of the division, including its global strategy, team development and business affairs. She will report to president of global touring, Rich Schaefer, and be based out of AEG Presents’ headquarters in Los Angeles.
“I’ve been incredibly lucky by being in the right place at the right time, to experience unprecedented growth in live music and touring,” said Rho, “I feel just as lucky to be joining Rich Schaefer in Global Touring and the talented family at AEG Presents. I’m very excited about what’s ahead of us and look forward to contributing meaningfully to the continued success of AEG’s Global Touring group.”
Drew Praster has been promoted to chief ticketing officer for the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins after spending the past two seasons with the team as senior vice president, ticketing.
In his role, Praster oversees the entire ticketing department and its subsidiaries which includes the sales staff, customer service, and ticket operations groups. Praster is responsible for a team that accounts for season tickets, premium tickets and suites, groups, single-game tickets, as well as renewing existing ticket holders.
Before joining the Penguins, Praster spent 14 seasons with the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, most recently as vice president, ticket sales and service.
Mitchell takes NEC Group arenas role
The NEC Group has appointed Jen Mitchell, formerly general manager at the AO Arena in Manchester, as managing director for arenas.
In her role, Mitchell will be leading the teams at bp pulse LIVE and Utilita Arena Birmingham and will initially be focused on launching the new premium seating and hospitality areas at the arenas.
Mitchell said: “It’s fantastic to be joining the team at the NEC Group at such an exciting time. It’s a unique opportunity to lead a team across two of the best arenas in the country and I’m looking forward to getting started.”
Tom Chiarella has been appointed as president of the executive board of OCTO, the non-profit organisation that seeks to streamline and standardise booking system connections in the tours, activities, attractions and experiences sectors through open-source API specification.
Chiarella currently serves as Gateway Ticketing Systems’ executive vice-president and head of product. He replaces Carrie Keplinger, who is now OCTO’s executive director.
Gigantic Tickets has announced a new co-chief executive as part of a raft of staff promotions in its senior management team.
Simon Carpenter – who for the last nine years has led Gigantic’s commercial team – joins the board as a director and has been promoted to co-CEO alongside founder Mark Gasson.
Additionally, Joe Lilley – whose tenure at Gigantic as part of the core technical team spans over 13 years – becomes co-chief technology officer alongside incumbent James Woodward.
Finally, Kelly McKinney has been promoted to head of operations after eight years working in event management and client services at Gigantic.
Hayley Fowler-Rimell has become head of strategic global partnerships – ticketing at Companjon. Based in Ireland, Companjon is a tech venture specialising in embedding fully digital, end-to-end insurance products.
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.
Share this