Untitled Group announces spate of new hires

Australia’s largest independent promoter Untitled Group has announced a series of new hires and promotions as it continues its rapid growth.

The company, which hosted flagship event Beyond the Valley over four days from 28 December to 1 January,  has swelled from 37 to 62 employees since May 2022.

Its latest round of appointments sees Sydney-based Chris Sheppard joins the touring team as programming manager, supporting with programming for Beyond The Valley, Wildlands Festival and Grapevine Gathering.

Sheppard brings more than a decade of experience and specialist knowledge in the live music sector to Untitled Group, having previously run his own venues and festivals booking service, Curate Connect. He will develop an external programming arm of Untitled Group, including longstanding clients Party In The Paddock, Festival of the Sun, The Basin Concert, Boots & Beach Country Music Festival and Meatstock: The Music & BBQ Festival.

In addition, Mia Ford, formerly of Niche Productions, becomes touring & booking operations coordinator, with responsibility for overseeing tour rollouts, logistics and advancing, as well as assisting Untitled’s portfolio of festivals, projects and events. Ford recently played a core role in delivering the first year of the firm’s music programming of the Australian Open’s Finals Fest.

“Streamlining decision making is an important step to support our growth”

Among other hires, Kelly McCaffrey has joined the festival operations team as event manager. Previously operations manager at Dark Mofo, McCaffrey worked with Falls Festival, St Kilda Fest, Meredith & Golden Plains.

Elsewhere, Laura Hughes has been elevated to head of PR, with Gloria Fittapaldi recently joining the team in a publicist role. Jackson Smith assumes the role of senior commercial partnerships manager and Jim Hennesy comes on board as head of festivals & events marketing, while Xander Speight is elevated to senior social media coordinator and Nicholas Moutafis, previously of Live Nation, takes on the newly created role of financial controller.

Festival GM Pete Sofo and marketing director Casey Katz will sit on the senior leadership team with the four managing partners, Michael Christidis, Nicholas Greco, Filippo Palermo and Christian Serrao.

“We have worked hard to implement systems, structures and skilled humans to give Pete and Casey the autonomy needed in their roles to grow other leaders in our business,” says a statement from the managing partners. “These positions come with a great deal of accountability and responsibility for decision making and approvals. Streamlining decision making is an important step to support our growth. We are super grateful that we are now in a position to announce this step for them, and for our team!”

Untitled restructured its booking team last autumn as part of its expansion to Asia Pacific and Europe.

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