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Jared Smith Promoted To Ticketmaster Global Chairman, Mark Yovich, Amy Howe Named Global President, Global COO
– Jared Smith
Pollstar has confirmed that Jared Smith, Ticketmaster Global President, has been elevated to Global Chairman of Ticketmaster while Mark Yovich, the ticketing platform’s President of International, and Amy Howe, President of North America, have been promoted to Global President and Global Chief Operating Officer, respectively.
In recent years, Ticketmaster, which currently operates in 32 countries, along with its parent company Live Nation, have made expansion into international markets a strategic priority, which these promotions and titles clearly underscore.
Sources with knowledge of the shift confirm this is another step in the company’s mission to align its operations across the globe by bringing together the North America and International groups as one team to better plan, build and grow for the future.
Billboard originally broke the story of their promotions
In 2019, with Live Nation’s revenues up 7% to $11.5 billion, Ticketmaster reported an estimated 486 million-plus tickets sold—with 115 million of those tickets sold internationally.
“Our international ticketing business drove our growth in fee-bearing tickets and gross transaction value (“GTV”), led by our strong international concerts ticket sales,” the company wrote in a release for its 2019 full-year earnings. “We now provide ticketing services in 31 countries and in 2019 delivered 115 million tickets internationally, with tremendous opportunity for continued growth on a global basis, particularly in the 15 markets where we promote concerts but do not yet have a substantial ticketing operation. Ticketmaster’s recent entry into both the Taiwan and Singapore markets highlights this international expansion opportunity, building on our concerts position in these markets, and growing our ticketing presence to seven countries in Asia as we continue to build out our flywheel across more of our markets.”
A year earlier, speaking on an earnings call for its 2018 numbers, Live Nation President and CEO Michael Rapino made specific mention of growing Ticketmaster globally. “I believe we have a tremendous opportunity for growth on a global basis, particularly in the 13 markets where we promote concerts but don’t yet have a substantial ticketing operation,” he said. “In 2018, we furthered our international expansion, establishing ticketing operations in Italy, ramping up our German operations and laying the groundwork for our expansion in Latin America. Ticketmaster continues to exceed expectations, both operationally and in its leadership position in digital ticketing, along with its ability to extend that leadership position globally and deliver continued profitable growth.”
Jared Smith was named President of Ticketmaster North America in December 2012 and was previously its Chief Operating Officer. He joined Ticketmaster in 2003 and has led the team to focus on data-driven products and services and technology-driven marketing tools.
Before the global pandemic Ticketmaster was on the verge of rolling out its SafeTix technology and fan identity-based mobile ticketing to 80-90% of its customers. Then COVID-19 prompted changes to 30,000 impacted events within the span of a month—more than the company has had to process in the past 15 years.