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Ex-SFX hires Hard Events founder to lead North American operations
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 5 September 2017
LiveStyle – the company that they once called SFX – has hired Gary Richards to be its President of North America. Richards was the founder of Hard Events, the LA-based dance music-focused promoter that was acquired by Live Nation in 2012. Following that acquisition Richards stayed with Live Nation until recently.
Confirming the new hire, LiveStyle boss Randy Phillips is quoted by Variety as saying: “To complete our executive suite, we wanted to bring some real authenticity to the management of LiveStyle, and no single candidate to be the President Of North America fulfils this role better than Gary Richards. In fact, this is a delayed goal for me since I tried to make a deal with Gary ten years ago while I was running AEG Live. Not only is he an accomplished working DJ, he is a very astute businessman with an affinity to his fellow artists”.
Meanwhile Richards himself says: “Randy Phillips has been a trailblazer in the music and entertainment industry for as long as I can remember. Having known Randy personally for many years, I’m excited that the stars have aligned and I’m able to build a new platform for live music with him. [LiveStyle’s] portfolio of brands, such as React, Made Event/Electric Zoo, DDP and Beatport – to name a few – is an incredible place to start from and build. In addition, I plan to create new festival concepts and cruises at LiveStyle”.