Movers and shakers: New hires at ASM, Zomato

ASM Global has appointed Martin McGougan as the group’s regional director of business development for the Middle East North Africa (MENA) Region.

McGougan is a strategic events specialist with more than 20 years of experience in the business across the Middle East and Scotland.

For the last ten years, he has been based at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) helping to deliver the government’s Economic Vision 2030 through the development of core markets and the establishment of key business events.

Prior to moving to Abu Dhabi, McGougan was the business development manager for Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus, (SEC) the UK’s largest integrated conference and exhibition centre.

In his new role at ASM Global, he will be based in Riyadh and be tasked with identifying potential venue management opportunities and supporting the delivery of conference and exhibition growth across the region.

Zomato has hired BookMyShow’s former head of live events and intellectual property Kunal Khambhati

Elsewhere, Zomato has hired BookMyShow’s former head of live events and intellectual property, Kunal Khambhati, in a bid to grow its own live events business.

Khambhati’s appointment comes after Zomato acquired Paytm Insider, the fintech company’s entertainment ticketing business, in a deal worth $244.1m (€219m).

Khambhati worked with BookMyShow, one of India’s largest ticketing operators, for more than seven years on events such as Lollapalooza, which was staged in India for the first time last year.

Zomato’s ‘going out’ business will eventually include a separate app called District, which will feature restaurant bookings, event ticketing and holiday rentals.

The Indian company originally began as a restaurant aggregator and food delivery business.

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