86
DAVID MARCUS, 49
Executive vp/head of music, Ticketmaster
Last Year’s Rank: New
ACHIEVEMENT OF THE YEAR: The rapid adoption of Verified Fan, which predicts concert attendance and deters scalpers. When the smoke clears on 2017, Ticketmaster will have delivered 3 million tickets directly to fans through Verified Fan. “That’s a lot of tickets in the first year of a new product,” he says.
VERIFIED SUCCESS: Sixty-two tours, including those by U2, Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift — and Bruce Springsteen’s red-hot Broadway run — employed Verified Fan in 2017, and, says Marcus, “fewer than 5 percent of those tickets have been listed for resale on the secondary market.”
STRESS RELIEVERS: “Surfing, brown liquor and rock’n’roll.”
