Untitled Group’s Headcount Grows With Fresh Wave of Hires

Untitled Group is in expansion-mode.

The independent music and events business today (Feb. 14) unveils a raft of new hires and promotions, as the company grows to keep up with demand for its concert and festival brands.

Among the new recruits is Chris Sheppard, who joins the touring team as programming manager, supporting with programming for Untitled events Beyond The Valley, Wildlands Festival and Grapevine Gathering.

Based in Sydney, Sheppard is an experienced live music professional, having previously run his own venues and festivals booking service, Curate Connect.

At Untitled, he’ll develop an external programming arm of the group, starting with several of his long-standing programming clients, including Party In The Paddock, Festival of the Sun, The Basin Concert, Boots & Beach Country Music Festival, Meatstock: The Music & BBQ Festival, and more to be announced soon, according to a statement.

Beyond The Valley

Meanwhile, Mia Ford joins the touring team as touring & booking operations coordinator.

Previously with Niche Productions, Ford oversees tour rollouts, logistics and advancing as well as assisting the company’s portfolio of festivals, projects and events.

Most recently, she served-up music programming for the Australian Open’s Finals Fest, through a partnership struck by Untitled Group.

The changes keep coming, with Kelly McCaffrey now on board with the festival operations team as an event manager. McCaffrey, formerly operations manager at Dark Mofo, is currently the event manager for Wildlands Festival and For The Love at Untitled Group.

Publicity whizz Laura Hughes rises to head of PR, with former Sony Music and Bolster staffer Gloria Fittipaldi recently joining in a publicist role.

The PR team is also joined by Georgia Old, who was initially tapped for a paid internship via the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Association, and has recently been promoted to publicity and social impact coordinator.

Also, Jackson Smith takes duties as senior commercial partnerships manager, with a remit to “lead and grow” the commercial partnerships departments to drive new sponsorship opportunities, plus oversee new opportunities in partnership leverage campaigns.

Previously, Smith had helped lead the partnership portfolio with dual responsibilities across business development and account management at the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.

Beyond The Valley

On the marketing side, Jim Hennessy is confirmed as head of festivals & events marketing, with responsibilities for crafting strategies for the company’s festival assets across digital, advertising, communications and creative.

Until recently, Hennessy was entertainment partnerships manager at Bolster.

Additional appointments to the marketing team include Xander Speight, who is promoted to senior social media coordinator.

And there’s a newly-created role for former Live Nation employee Nicholas Moutafis, who is named as financial controller, with a view to bringing the finance function in-house and expanding the team.

Moutafis will liaise with department heads and directors on group budgets, forecasts and cash flow.

Finally, Pete Sofo (general manager of festivals) and Casey Katz (marketing director) are appointed to the senior leadership team, serving alongside the four managing partners — Michael Christidis, Nicholas Greco, Filippo Palermo and Christian Serrao.

“We have worked hard to implement systems, structures and skilled humans to give Pete and Casey the autonomy needed in their roles to grow other leaders in our business,” reads a statement from the managing partners.

“These positions come with a great deal of accountability and responsibility for decision making and approvals. Streamlining decision making is an important step to support our growth. We are super grateful that we are now in a position to announce this step for them, and for our team.”

Untitled now boasts 62 employees, and recently moved to a larger space in Dover Street, Cremorne to accommodate for the growth.

In May 2022, the business announced it had grown from seven to 37 staff since January 2021.

In mid-2022, group ticket sales across its suite of shows and events were expected to top 500,000 for the year, well up on the 300,000 shifted in typical, pre-COVID year.