Richards President Of LiveStyle N.A.
Randy Phillips, President/CEO of LiveStyle, Inc. announced that Gary Richards has joined the company as President of LiveStyle North America. Richards is the founder of the world-renowned event and festival company HARD Events, recognized for such landmark festivals as HARD Summer, HARD Day of the Dead, and the electronic music cruise, HOLY SHIP! In this newly created position, Richards, the son of industry vet Barry Richards will be responsible for working with all of LiveStyle’s current U.S. festival operations and developing and launching new brands and activities on the West Coast. Phillips said, “To complete our executive suite, we wanted to bring some real authenticity to the management of LiveStyle, and no single candidate to be the President of North America fulfills this role better than Gary Richards. In fact, this is a delayed goal for me since I tried to make a deal with Gary 10 years ago while I was running AEG Live. Not only is he an accomplished working DJ (DJ Destructo), he’s a very astute businessman with an affinity to his fellow artists. With Gary on board, LiveStyle is prepared for creative and strategic growth in the years ahead.”
Since 1991, Richards has been a concert promoter, DJ, record label exec and festival founder. He was handpicked by Rick Rubin to handle A&R duties for the electronic music division at Def American Recordings and is a recording artist and producer/DJ himself, under the moniker Destructo. In 2007 Richards launched the very first HARD Events festival, which helped launch the careers of DJs including Diplo, Steve Aoki and Skrillex. After much success he sold a majority stake of Hard Events to Live Nation in 2012.
Richards said, “Randy Phillips has been a trailblazer in the music and entertainment industry for as long as I can remember. Having known Randy personally for many years, I’m excited that the stars have aligned and I’m able to build a new platform for live music with him. I look forward to coming on board as President of LiveStyle and have a much larger role to play in the music community. Their portfolio of brands such as React, Made Event/Electric Zoo, DDP and Beatport, to name a few, is an incredible place to start from and build. In addition, I plan to create new festival concepts and cruises at LiveStyle. We will continue on the path that I created with the HARD and HOLY SHIP! brands.” [Photo credit: Nikko Lamere]
