The SMG-managed Florence (S.C.) Civic Center has named Brittany Butler the venue’s new events coordinator. Prior to joining the Civic Center staff, Butler had been supervising a local event planning company in the region. Also joining the team is new sales manager, Mary Hudson, who worked in the trade show and corporate meeting field and has also owned a design and product development company before taking on her new role.
Jordan Carriere is joining Madison House Inc. as an agent. Making the transition to Madison House with Carriere are his clients, including Coco Montoya, Flow Tribe, Pho, Pacific Dub, and the Supervillians. Carriere will be based out of Madison House's Boulder, Colo., offices. Carriere joins Madison House after a six-year stint at Monterey International. He graduated from Columbia College, Chicago, with a degree in arts management.
Edlen Electrical Exhibition Services has added Brittany Cordova to its team as AGM. Cordova joined Edlen in 2014 and played a key role in transitioning the new partnership with the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The AristoMedia Group has added Cheri Cranford to the company’s publicity and events division, AristoPR, as PR and special events manager. Most of her music industry career was spent at Sony Music Nashville, formerly Arista Nashville, and RCA Label Group. Most recently, Cranford worked as manager, HR, and executive assistant at Rural Media Group/RFD-TV and GM at Streamsound Records.
The Fox Theatre, Atlanta, has staffed its new Marquee Club presented by Lexus. Paul Delgado will be the club’s manager and Alfredo Rodriguez is the new executive chef. Delgado’s varied history includes time with Walt Disney World Resort’s Magic Kingdom Theme Park, Orlando, and Ruth’s Chris Steak House at both Harrah’s Casino, N.C. and Atlanta’s Centennial Park location. Rodriguez’s previous positions include Walt Disney World Resorts, Orlando, and California Center for the Arts, Escondido. Most recently, Rodriguez was the chef at Emilio and Gloria Estefan’s restaurant Oriente at Cardozo Hotel, Miami.
Live Nation Entertainment has expanded its footprint in Brazil with the hiring of industry veteran Alexandre Faria as director and senior VP of talent buying. Faria began his career in 1994 as an independent promoter, before joining indie promoter Mercury Concerts in 1999. In 2000, Faria moved to regional live events promoter CIE Brasil, which later spun off as T4F Entretenimento S.A., where he was responsible for booking and producing concerts in Brazil and South America. For the past seven years, Faria was at Time For Fun, where he handled promotion and booking for all of TF4's South American events, working on tours such as U2, Foo Fighters and EDC, as well as the Lollapalooza Festival.
Chris Granger has been hired by Ilitch Holdings, Inc., the company behind the new Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, as group president for sports and entertainment. Granger left his position as president of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Sacramento (Calif.) Kings in June. He was in charge of the business operations of the team and led the effort to build the Kings’ new arena, Golden 1 Center, which opened in October 2016. Prior to this, Granger had had a 14-year career as an executive in the NBA's league offices where he led the team marketing and business operations, advising NBA, Women’s National Basketball League (WNBA) and NBA Development League teams.
SAVOR…Chicago has promoted Kevin Jezewski to director of food & beverage at McCormick Place, Chicago. Jezewski has been with SAVOR…Chicago for the past six years and has nearly two decades of food & beverage industry experience.
SMG-managed Van Andel Arena, DeVos Place, and DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids, Mich., has made several changes to its key staff. Director of Event Services Todd Johnson has transitioned into a new role as director of event operations & security. Chris Anderson has been named chief engineer for Van Andel Arena and DeVos Place. The new ticketing coordinator will be Josh Zeigler. SMG’s marketing department has also welcomed new Marketing Manager Alison Goodyke and has transitioned Group Sales Manager Rebecca Chesnut into the promotions and special events manager role and Marketing Assistant Mike Klompstra has been promoted to the digital marketing coordinator role.
Mark Kaufman has been named head of the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s public safety department. Kaufman comes to New Orleans from AEG Facilities in Oakland, Calif., where he served as VP of operations. Prior to his tenure at AEG, Kaufman was GM, and then CEO, of the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority (OACCA) and Oakland Coliseum Joint Venture (SMG). Kaufman also served as director of sales and event services with SMG at the New Orleans Superdome for ten years.
Veteran radio programmer John Mayer has joined Caroline as a regional promotion director. Prior to Caroline, Mayer worked at iHeartMedia for 10 years, most recently as the program director of WFLZ, Tampa, Fla., and previously as the program director of WRVW, Nashville,Tenn. He has also held positions at iHeartMedia as a music director, in marketing, and as on-air talent.
Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BSE) is making changes to its senior management team following the retirement of Chief Financial Officer Charlie Mierswa, who has been with BSE since 2005. New CFO Eu-Gene Sung is joining the company from advertising agency McCann New York, where she served as the CFO. Her finance experience spans from Interpublic Group to J.P. Morgan. Chris Magee, who currently serves as senior VP of HR will fill the newly-created role of chief administrative officer.
Hard Rock International has promoted Andrew Nasskau to the post of vice president of operations development. Before his promotion, Nasskau led the team responsible for the management, operations and pre-opening of Hard Rock Hotels throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India. Nasskau joined the Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos team in 2015 as regional director of operations – EMEA, and was promoted in 2016 to area vice president of operations – EMEA.
Gabriela Ong has been appointed VP of sales at Meet Puerto Rico (MPR). Ong has 16 years of sales experience in the hospitality industry including the past three as brand sales manager, Northeast for MPR. Before joining MPR in 2014, Ong was group sales manager at the InterContinental New York Barclay. Prior to that she held the sales manager position for various hotel brands including Marriott International, Sheraton Stamford and InterContinental New York Times Square.
Gary Richards has joined LiveStyle as president of LiveStyle North America. Richards is the founder of the event and festival company HARD Events. Since 1991, Richards has been a concert promoter, DJ, record label executive and festival founder.
The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau (PHLCVB) has hired Melissa Richter-Piraino to the role of national sales manager in the convention sales division. Prior to joining the PHLCVB, Richter-Piraino spent more than seven years with Starwood Hotels and Resorts. She served as a guest service/whatever-whenever agent at W New York City, as well as a sales coordinator at Starwood Global Sales. Most recently, she worked as a sales manager for group meetings and events at the Westin New York at Times Square, NYC.
National Shows 2 (NS2) has added veteran comedy talent buyer Lisa Roberts to its staff. Roberts got her start in the music business in the A&R department at the RCA Label Group Nashville. Roberts holds a B.S. in advertising from Kent State University, Ohio.
Christoph Schulze Dieckhoff is the new sales manager of guest events at Messe Berlin. He takes over from Christian Ortlepp, who has relocated to Düsseldorf. Prior, he was a hotel specialist with the Berlin Conference Hotel Andel’s of the Vienna House Group. Previous posts included project management at Maritim Hotels and MICE AG.
Western Specialty Contractors has appointed Chester Scott as branch manager of its Atlanta office. Chester was previously the branch manager of Western's Orlando, Fla. office. Chester started with Western in 1984 and has held the positions of field laborer, foreman, sales/project manager and department manager at Western's Chicago, Ill., office, in addition to branch manager of the Orlando, Fla., branch.
Kristine Smith has joined The Activity as executive producer. Since 1999, Smith has worked as a freelance executive producer and project lead for agencies such as Jack Morton Worldwide, among others. In 2010, Smith founded 22twelve Ltd. in New York.
Stoney's Rockin' Country has named Toad its new marketing manager/co-buyer of its Las Vegas nightclub and concert venue. Toad previously had a heavy presence on the Las Vegas local music scene through his lvlocalmusicscene.com site.
The Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre has appointed Muhammad Vickneswaran as its new HR director. Vickneswaran is a senior HR professional with over 27 years’ experience in human resources, specifically in the hospitality industry.
PASSINGS
Harry Sandler — 73, rock photographer and tour manager, Sept. 2, after a brief fight against cancer. Sandler spent much of his career working as a tour manager for Irving Azoff. Sandler retired from tour management in 2008 and focused on his true professional love, photography. Sandler is survived by his long-time companion, AEG’s Debra Rathwell and daughter Marcella Grimaux and son Jesse Sandler, who now works as a production manager and tour director.
Jo Walker-Meador — 93, one of the pioneers of what we now know as country music, Aug. 16, after suffering a stroke. Walker-Meador was the first hire at the Country Music Association (CMA) and she led the organization from 1962-1991. Prior to her executive role, Walker-Meador worked as the office manager of the association. Walker-Meador led the charge to get the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum built and also had a hand in creating the CMA annual awards show and worked to get the show televised.