43
JARED SMITH, 38
President, Ticketmaster North America
Last Year’s Rank: —
RUSSELL WALLACH, 50
President, Media & Sponsorship, Live Nation
Last Year’s Rank: 44
Wallach had a big year at Live Nation: Sponsorship and advertising, which included marketing partnerships with Snapchat, Vice and Hilton hotels, was up 19 percent, to $274.9 million, through the third quarter of 2015. And even before Smith and Ticketmaster put tickets for Adele’s tour on sale in December, ticketing revenue was up 9 percent, to $1.2 billion, through the third quarter, and primary ticket sales rose 4.7 percent, to 115.4 million. An antitrust lawsuit that fan ticket app Songkick brought against Ticketmaster and Live Nation in January 2016 generated headlines — as did a critical report on ticket scalping issued weeks later by the New York attorney general — but the developments have yet to affect Ticketmaster’s bottom line.
