Ventadour Joins EAA Board

Philippe Ventadour, the events and development manager at the Palais Omnisports Paris Bercy, has joined the board of the European Arenas’ Association (EAA) in place of Peter Tudor, who left his post as Wembley Arena GM to become senior director of group sales for Ticketmaster U.K.

The EAA has shuffled the board six months in advance of having to make another change, as Rotterdam Ahoy managing director Jos van der Vegt’s two-year term as president comes to an end when the organization meets in Belgrade in October.

The May 15 meeting at Riga Arena in Latvia voted a new board, although the only change of personnel is Ventadour replacing former first vice-president Tudor, who represented Wembley Arena for seven years.

Van der Vegt and executive director Linda Bull, representing Birmingham’s NEC Group, carry on in their current roles. Gil Carneiro de Almeida (Atlantico, Lisbon) and Aivar Sirelpuu (Saku Arena, Tallinn) will move up to first and second vice-presidents.

The next meeting is in Serbia at Belgrade Arena, which has just joined the association along with Berlin’s O2 World.

That brings the membership up to 26 arenas from 19 countries, going on double what it was before the EAA relaxed its rules in 2001, allowing two arenas from each country instead of one.