LN Shakes Up California

In a reorganization of Live Nation’s California operations, San Francisco’s Rick Mueller has been promoted to the new position of President of the California region effective immediately, North America Music president Jason Garner announced in a memo to LN staff July 18.

Mueller has ascended rapidly through the Live Nation ranks as booker, an assistant to Lee Smith, and president of the San Francisco region prior to accepting the promotion that will give him oversight of all live operations statewide.

Smith will continue as chairman of San Francisco and Nick Masters is promoted to chairman of Southern California. Brian Murphy will now focus on business development as a senior consultant and will assist Mueller’s transition in the SoCal market.

"With the increased venue and promotional activity the job of running the day-to-day operations has become an enormous job that requires full time attention," Masters told Live Nation staff in the memo. "This has left me little time for my true passion of buying shows and creating radio shows and packages and spending more time on the Palladium and other venue opportunities.

"I am enthusiastic to jump back into a more active booking role and proud to have the opportunity to mentor Rick as a leader."

Matt Preishoff will continue in his role as senior VP of Venues in California. Rich Best, Jodi Goodman, Emily Simonitsch, Michael Bailey, Greg Siegel, Robin Alexander, Brad Locker, Creighton Burke and the SoCal booking and marketing teams will report directly to Mueller, who will relocate to Los Angeles, according to Garner’s memo.