UK venue management company VMS Live has appointed Bert Van Horck as its new CEO.
Alongside his appointment to the board of directors of the VMS Live group of companies, Kate Forster, widow of VMS founder and CEO Steve Forster, has joined the board as non-executive director. Forster, creator and CEO of the VMS Live group of companies, died unexpectedly earlier this year.
Kate Forster said: “I am focusing on the opportunity to preserve and continue to grow the legacy of my late husband. This is the appropriate time to extend a huge thank you all the staff, suppliers, clients and other stakeholders who all contributed to keeping VMS Live running in the difficult past five months.”
“Bert has a unique track record in the event industry, including promoting and producing live entertainment and starting up venues and I am looking forward to working with him to take the Company forward.”
Van Horck experience includes being the CEO of event crowd management specialists ICMS, trading as Showsec in the UK. He has worked within organising committees of multi-sport events, heading the safety and security department during the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
He said: “VMS Live is in a great space in this dynamic sector and I am very much looking to working with the new team to build on the incredible foundations and legacy Steve Forster, Richard Maides and Carl Bathgate have put in place.”
Maides and Bathgate led the company during the transition. They have now resigned following the transfer of their duties.
Van Horck added: “The company is grateful for their long-standing service and contribution to its growth, particularly their special efforts over these five last months. They played a major part in developing the USPs which make VMS Live such a unique group of companies - blending venue management, promoting and ticketing into a one-stop-shop entertainment organisation.”
The VMS Live venues include The Welly, (Hull), Manchester Academy, Warwick University Students Union, Eventim Olympia in Liverpool, The Foundry in Sheffield, The Lemon Grove in Exeter, ULU in London and Brixton Electric.
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