Just over a year after leaving the company, former RazorGator executives Sam Soni and Jason Parker have been rehired, according to company President and CEO Brendan Ross.
Soni, who originally joined RazorGator in 2005 after selling his Encore Tickets to the company, is now executive vice president of ticketing and procurement, and Parker will report to him as director of ticketing for special events. Parker also sold his business, Sports Tour Classics, to RazorGator at about the same time, and both resigned in July of 2008 following an up-and-down period of corporate shuffling at the company.
Ross joined the company himself in March, following the departure of Jeff Lapin, and he said bringing Soni back, who in turn brought Parker back, will help the company further build on an already impressive roster of ticketing deals in the professional and college sports ranks. Also returning to the company as a procurement consultant is Thomas Edwards.
“Sam’s whole career has been about establishing great relationships throughout the industry,” Ross told TicketNews. “He’s really well liked and respected in the industry, and he has an extraordinary ability to find win-win situations for everyone involved.”
Attempts to reach Soni in the Atlanta office for RazorGator, where Encore Tickets is located, were unsuccessful. Ross said he and Soni first began talking about the possibility of him returning to the company back in the spring around the time of the NCAA Final Four in Detroit, and discussions picked up during the summer. Soni will be taking over the procurement reigns from former chief operating officer Mark Reese, who left the company this year.
While Ross would not disclose specific projects or deals Soni and company are working on, he said Soni will be a “critical component” to growing the company’s official and unofficial ticket purchases and agreements.
RazorGator is the sixth-largest secondary ticket seller in the country, according to TicketNews’s exclusive industry rankings, but because of the corporate upheaval during the last two years, it has flown a bit under the radar compared to StubHub and other secondary ticket exchanges.
Ross, who has a finance background, was brought in partially to bring stability back to the company, and protect the interests of investors. The company raised millions in venture and debt capital earlier in the year to help shore up operations and move into an expansion phase.
“Sam and his team have worked on major sporting events for years, and we’re very pleased that they’re back with us,” Ross said.
