Kochan Leaves AEG

Alex Kochan, who ran the Pacific Northwest office for AEG Live, has exited the company and the office will be overseen by Chuck Morris, who runs the Rocky Mountain Region office.

The Northwest office handles the Seattle market, with exclusives booking agreements with the Washington State Fair and King’s County’s Marymoor Park, and is staffed by about 20. Morris, who handles the Denver region, stressed that he’s not bringing his crew into the Seattle operation.

“We believe that successful regional offices come from the ground up and come from the inside out,” Morris told Pollstar. “Right now everybody is there except for Alex. We’d like to grow it. 

“My intention is to not go in with out-of-towners or corporate people but to use the best people we can find. I’m going to spend a lot of time in Seattle, spend a lot of time with the staff that’s still there, maybe try new things and bring in extra people but my philosophy is, to be successful in a city, you have to use the people in that city.”

Morris will, of course, provide the expertise of his 44 years in the business, plus that of his partners Don Strasburg and Brent Fedrizzi. There is also the possibility of combining the names of the two offices. Morris would not comment on the circumstances of Kochan’s exit.

Kochan is a veteran of the business, having founded Artists & Audience Entertainment in 1992, then headed up Bill Graham Presents NW office, under Clear Channel Entertainment, in 2004.