Smith was promoted to his current position as Ticketmaster Global Chair in AugustTicketmaster
Ticketmaster Global Chair JARED SMITH is stepping down from his role by the end of the year after 17 years at the company, and his departure is being hastened by the economic fallout from the global pandemic. "If not for COVID, would I have left this year? Probably not," he said. Smith, who was promoted to his current position in August, said he had discussed with Live Nation President & CEO MICHAEL RAPINO plans to eventually leave over the next few years, but COVID accelerated his timetable and they both decided to make the move now rather than later. Smith said, "We were geared up for a really big year, everybody was touring, it was going to be a huge stadium year, we were opening up with new customers with SoFi (Stadium) and the Raiders." He hopes to stay in the live entertainment and sports industry, but also is confident he can apply lessons from his 17 years at Ticketmaster elsewhere as he contemplates his next move. "If I can find the right opportunity to stay in the business, I’d love to. But I’m fortunate if I don’t, I don’t have to," Smith said. He added that Ticketmaster at its core is a "product and technology business at massive scale with a big consumer tech business and marketplace." Smith: "That’s readily transferable to any number of industries" (Karn Dhingra, SBJ Unpacks).
MAKING HIS MARK: BILLBOARD's Dave Brooks wrote Smith is the "most successful ticketing executive of the last decade, selling more than 485 million tickets in 2019 alone for 11,500 clients across every major sports league and venue category." Smith joined Ticketmaster in '03 "covering the Alabama region and was promoted" to COO in '10, the same year the company "finalized its merger with Live Nation." In '13, Smith was "promoted to president." He took the reins of the company three years after the Department of Justice "instituted a consent decree after the merger with Live Nation, barring Ticketmaster from retaliating against venues and promoters who opted to go with a competitor for ticketing." Despite "criticism and ongoing monitoring by the DOJ," Ticketmaster has "thrived while many of its competitors have stumbled to gain market share or take advantage of the favorable conditions set in place by the government." Smith said he has been in discussions with Rapino about "putting a succession plan in place for some time now." As part of the transition, Smith was promoted to his current role, Ticketmaster Int'l President MARK YOVICH became Global President and North America President & COO AMY HOWE will become Global COO (BILLBOARD.com, 10/5).
