By Billboard Staff | September 21, 2015 3:13 PM EDT
The Forum
Los Angeles
Dana Dufine, 49, senior vp/head of West Coast operations, Madison Square Garden Company
Nick Spampanato, 47, vp/GM
Dufine, who books both The Forum and Madison Square Garden, recalls that she snuck out of the house to see U2 with her boyfriend in Los Angeles in the early ’80s. Fast-forward, and in 2015 Dufine worked with Live Nation’s Arthur Fogel to present U2 for a combined 13 shows at the Garden and The Forum, grossing $29 million. Spampanato joined Dufine, Irving and Shelli Azoff, and MSG executive chairman James Dolan to reopen The Forum in January 2014 in order to bring it “back to where it was, as one of the storied rock’n’roll houses in the country,” he says.
Big Break (Define): “Working at Front Line Management with Irving Azoff. I started in 2003, managing Velvet Revolver, Stone Temple Pilots and others. Twelve years later, it brought me here.”