Dan Parise, a long-time entertainment industry executive, has left his post at Live Nation as vice president of special events to form Diversified Production Services (DPS), a new entertainment promotions company based in Weehauken, NJ.
DPS will specialize in the various aspects of event promotion and production, and to do so Parise has hired several former Live Nation special events employees, including Dave Meyers, Chris Balogh, Hans Polleman, Carly Vaknin, Cheryl Alper, and Randi Blattberg, according to entertainment trade publication BizBash.
It was not immediately known whether the former Live Nation employees were among those laid off by the company in recent months. Since the merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster, Live Nation reportedly has laid off dozens of employees, including many from marketing and production. The moves were partly due to the company’s up-and-down concert business in 2010, but also due to the company looking for cost savings as a result of combined resources.
“From concept to realization, DPS manages the development and production of events of all sizes including event management and logistics, staging, set design, tour planning, vendor sourcing, budget, travel and talent coordination in the categories of diversified projects, fundraisers, sports, multimedia and concerts,” according to a statement on the company’s Web site.
Parise worked in production and special events for Clear Channel Communications and SFX Entertainment, the precursors to Live Nation.
In recent years, Parise and his current team have had their hands in producing several major events for Live Nation, including the 2010 Yankee Stadium concert with Jay-Z and Eminem; the Concert for New York City after 9/11; and NFL Kickoff and Super Bowl concerts.
