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Oak View Group Adds Two New Hires To Team At Climate Pledge Arena

(Left-to-right) Jacque Holowaty, VP of Employee and Guest Experience & Adrian Dishington, VP of Hospitality and Retail

(Left-to-right) Jacque Holowaty, VP of Employee and Guest Experience & Adrian Dishington, VP of Hospitality and Retail

 SEATTLE (December 15, 2020) – Oak View Group (OVG), the global venue development, advisory, and investment company for the sports and live entertainment industries, and the Seattle Kraken today announced the appointment of two executives to its team at Climate Pledge Arena. Joining OVG is Adrian Dishington as vice president of hospitality and retail, and Jacque Holowaty as vice president of employee and guest experience. Both assume their new roles immediately.

“We are pleased to welcome Adrian and Jacque to our team at Climate Pledge Arena,” said Steve Mattson, executive vice president and Climate Pledge Arena general manager. “Both of them bring deep, rich experience in the live industry and will fulfill our mission of delivering a fan-centric experience that is second to none, as well as creating an environment of inclusion and excellence for our internal staff.”  

As vice president of hospitality and retail, Dishington will lead and define the arena’s business standards regarding guest experience, retail, food and beverage operations, and financial performance. This position will be responsible for developing and maintaining strong relationships with the arena’s retail partner and the arena’s concessionaire, Delaware North.

I was born into hospitality and raised within a hotel environment from a very early age, so I’ve always had a passion for the hospitality industry, not to mention, sports,” said Dishington. “I’m excited to join the team at Climate Pledge Arena and look forward to embracing new technologies and other tools to further enhance the guest experience.”

Dishington comes to Oak View Group most recently from Sodexo, where he was a Seattle-based regional senior vice president of operations for Centerplate, in which he oversaw the entire western region, including T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners. Before that role, he served as the chief operating officer for Centerplate Europe. Prior to Centerplate, Dishington held positions with Aramark, Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Princess Cruises.

With a decade and a half of experience in the sports and entertainment industry, Holowaty will lead Climate Pledge Arena’s guest experience program and build and define the employee’s role in bringing an extraordinary experience to guest interactions with the venue and its hosted live events. 

“I feel extremely fortunate to join Climate Pledge Arena, said Holowaty. “It feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring my passion for the employee and guest experience to an organization that values inclusivity and innovation.”

 Prior to Climate Pledge Arena, Holowaty worked for Spectra where she held a variety of box office and leadership roles and eventually serving as vice president of client experience & ticketing. While there, she spearheaded all client, employee, and guest experience training and tracking programs and successfully led teams through consensus building with effective communication.

These latest leadership additions of Dishington and Holowaty finish out a year of growth for Oak View Group. During a year that has seen unprecedented retraction in the industry due to the global pandemic, Oak View Group has been able to continue to expand its teams with new hires across its multiple projects. Most recently, Oak View group announced Jeff Nickler and Casey Sparks would lead the team in Austin as senior vice president of OVG Austin, general manager, and senior vice president of OVG’s Arena Alliance; and vice president of OVG Austin and assistant general manager, respectively.

Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena has nearly closed out their leadership team in 2020 adding Eric Bresler, senior vice president of programming; Hewan Teshome, senior vice president, general counsel; Tom Conroy, vice president of operations; David Curry, vice president of technology; Rosemary Selle, vice president of marketing; Nick Vaerewyck, vice president of programming; Christine Spiller, senior director of event services; Randy Foster, director of event production; Kevin Melsby, senior director of arena operations; Damon Murray, director of engineering; Denise Russell, director of finance; as well as  Jessica Sloate, office manager and executive assistant, and Hannah Teheri, social media specialist. 

Climate Pledge Arena will open in the fall of 2021 and will host the inaugural Seattle Kraken 2021-2022 season as well as the WNBA’s Seattle Storm and the best in live music and entertainment. The latest updates can be found at www.climatepledgearena.com.

About Oak View Group (OVG)
Oak View Group (OVG) is a global sports and entertainment company founded by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff in 2015. OVG is focused on being a positive disruption to business as usual in the sports and live entertainment industry and currently has eight divisions across four global offices (Los Angeles, New York, London, and Philadelphia). OVG is leading the redevelopment and operations of Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle as well as leading arena development projects in Belmont, NY, Austin, TX, and Milan, Italy. OVG Global Partnerships, a division of OVG, is the sales and marketing arm responsible for selling across all OVG Arena Development projects.

About Climate Pledge Arena
Located at Seattle Center, Climate Pledge Arena will be the first net zero certified arena in the world. It will serve as a long-lasting and regular reminder of the urgent need for climate action. The Climate Pledge, which was founded by Amazon and Global Optimism in 2019, is a commitment from companies globally to be net zero carbon by 2040. The complete redevelopment of this historic landmark, originally built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, will be an industry first.  Home to the NHL’s Seattle Kraken, WNBA’s Seattle Storm, and the world’s biggest performers of live music and events, Climate Pledge Arena will open in 2021. Learn More at www.climatepledgearena.com.

About The Seattle Kraken
The Seattle Kraken is the National Hockey League’s newest franchise, set to play their inaugural season in 2021-2022 at Climate Pledge Arena, developed by Oak View Group. Visit www.nhl.com/kraken for the latest news and information including press releases, multimedia content, and the latest hires.

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