NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Patron Technology Founder and CEO Eugene Carr, along with Providence Strategic Growth, today announced leadership changes as part of Patron Technology’s evolution to leader in live event enterprise technology. The company, which received an investment from Providence Strategic Growth in June 2017, now includes PatronManager, ShowClix, Ticketleap and SeatAdvisor.
Marc Jenkins has been named Chief Executive Officer of Patron Technology and will assume the post February 1. Carr has been named to the newly created position of President, responsible for the operations and integration of the growing company. Other members of the company’s leadership team are Brian Arnone, Chief Revenue Officer; Nate Good, Chief Technology Officer; Dave Esposito, SVP Engineering; and Anupam Palit, Chief Financial Officer.
Jenkins joins Patron Technology from his role as Chief Operating Officer of Learfield Communications, a leader in integrated sports and entertainment solutions. In that role, he was responsible for development and oversight of the marketing, branding, and venue solutions business units.
“We are thrilled to have Marc Jenkins lead our team,” said Carr. “He’s a seasoned executive who has had a dynamic career of scaling live-event related businesses on a global scale. His leadership will emphasize the continued rapid development of our overall growth strategy and our investments in our core technology platform.”
According to Jenkins, “This is a fantastic opportunity to leverage the investment resources of Providence Strategic Growth to build an innovative world-class ticketing and event experience company. I could not be more pleased to be working with Gene, Brian, and the executive team and join the Patron Technology family.”
In his new role as President, Carr will be directly responsible for the operations of each of the portfolio companies and those to be acquired, ensuring the continued delivery of outstanding client service and innovation in the live events market. “We are focused on helping our clients build stronger and more profitable relationships with their ticket buyers, fans, and supporters,” said Carr.
Arnone, as CRO, leads the company’s sales strategy worldwide and continues in his role as President and COO of ShowClix. According to Arnone, “Marc is a respected leader and a strong addition to our executive team. We are excited and share his vision of building this company into a leading platform in our industry.”
Gopi Vaddi, Managing Director of Providence Strategic Growth, added, “We are excited to bring Marc on board as CEO. These changes put a world-class team of experienced executives with highly diverse and complementary skill sets at the helm of Patron Technology. We believe they are the right team to transform Patron into a leader in event experience with industry-leading capabilities in ticketing, CRM, and live event management.”
About Marc Jenkins
Marc Jenkins is a seasoned executive in the sports and entertainment industry. Prior to joining Patron Technology, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Learfield Communications, Inc. In that role, Jenkins was responsible for the Marketing Solutions, Brand Solutions, and Venue Solutions business units. These units include Paciolan, SIDEARM Sports, Mogo Interactive, Learfield Licensing Partners, SME, ANC, GoVision, IMG-Learfield Ticket Solutions, and Learfield Levy Foodservice.
Prior to joining Learfield, Jenkins was Vice President, Digital Media for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). In that role, he led the efforts of NASCAR across the entire digital media spectrum. Prior to leading the Digital Media group, Jenkins led the Global Media Rights Strategy and Development group responsible for the strategy, development, structuring, and negotiation of media rights relationships for NASCAR.
Prior to his time at NASCAR, Jenkins served as general counsel of the Chicago White Sox, where he played a major role in the structuring of the stadium naming rights deal with U.S. Cellular, the formation of Comcast SportsNet Chicago (now NBC Sports Chicago), the negotiation of the MLB Advanced Media rights agreement, and the extension of the MLB agency agreement.
Before entering the sports industry, Jenkins worked in corporate finance with Morgan Stanley’s Fixed Income division, specializing in currency derivatives. He started his career at the corporate law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore, in New York, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and complex financial transactions.
About Eugene Carr
Eugene Carr is an entrepreneur who has been a visionary in bringing internet-based technology solutions to arts and cultural organizations since the early days of the consumer web. Carr’s first technology company, in 1995, was the groundbreaking national arts listing site Culturefinder.com, funded by AOL Ventures and Comcast. He has also worked in arts management, serving as Executive Director of the American Symphony Orchestra and Concordia Orchestras. Prior to that, he worked in management positions at American Express. Carr then became a co-founder and the CEO of Patron Technology in 2001, which initially offered PatronMail and then PatronManager. He is also the co-chairman of LaunchU, an alumni-led program he initiated for entrepreneurship at Oberlin College as a member of the President’s Advisory Board.
Carr is a co-author of Breaking the Fifth Wall: Rethinking Arts Marketing for the 21st Century, which describes how customer relationship management would change the way arts organizations build relationships with ticket buyers and donors. Previously, he wrote three books on e-marketing: Wired for Culture: How Email Is Revolutionizing Arts Marketing, Sign-Up for Culture: The Arts Marketer’s Guide to Building an Effective Email List, and Web Sites for Culture: Essential Principles for Great Arts Web Sites.
About Brian Arnone
Brian Arnone is a recognized leader in the ticketing industry. Throughout his career he has managed sales, client support, and marketing teams and has a track record of leading businesses to success. Arnone’s ticketing career began with BASS Tickets in 1996, where he provided client support to professional sports teams, including the San Francisco Giants, Oakland A’s, and Oakland Raiders. In 2000, he moved to online ticketing pioneer TicketWeb, where he managed the Client Services and Customer Support teams. Prior to joining ShowClix as its COO in 2015, Arnone was SVP of Sales for Ticketfly for five years, where he led a 20-plus-person sales team to unprecedented growth in the music ticketing industry.
Today, Arnone is President of ShowClix and CRO of Patron Technology. He is responsible for leading the development and execution of ShowClix’s strategy and the overall operation of the company. For Patron Technology, his focus is on growing the business as one of the leading event technology businesses in the world.
About Patron Technology
Patron Technology provides innovative and industry-leading technology that enables its customers to create deeper and more profitable relationships with their ticket buyers, fans, and supporters. Under the investment umbrella of PSG, Patron Technology now includes the Pittsburgh-based ShowClix and Philadelphia-based Ticketleap and is actively engaged in building out a broader platform that addresses other sectors of the ticketing & CRM market in the U.S. and abroad. www.patrontechnology.com
About Providence Strategic Growth
Providence Strategic Growth Capital Partners L.L.C. (“PSG”) is an affiliate of Providence Equity Partners L.L.C. (“Providence”). Established in 2014, PSG focuses on growth equity investments in lower middle market software and technology-enabled service companies, primarily in North America. Providence is a premier, global asset management firm with more than $50 billion in capital under management across complementary private equity and credit businesses. For more information on PSG, please visit provequity.com/private-equity/psg, and for more information on Providence Equity, visit provequity.com.
