LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 29, 2025--
As it continues to scale and expand its global footprint, sports and live entertainment leader, AEG, today announced a realignment of its international business divisions. The new structure will better position AEG to successfully pursue its continued growth strategy in major international markets.
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As part of this change, the company will implement a new management structure.
Wilkes and Hill will assume their new positions on February 1, 2025.
“This new management structure aligns our international organization with our corporate business and allows us to better focus our resources to best manage our existing businesses while also achieving our ambitious strategic growth initiatives around the globe,” said Dan Beckerman, President and CEO of AEG. “By ensuring that our talent is focused on the right opportunities, we will be well positioned to deliver growth, as well as new experiences and innovative services for our global artists, partners and fans.”
Beckerman added, “We have tremendous confidence in Adam and Alex, both of whom are seasoned strategic leaders with proven track records. Their understanding of our customers and markets, their deep industry experience, and their newly restructured responsibilities will position them to continue driving AEG’s international growth.”
AEG’s new management structure marks a significant next step in its business strategy. The realignment strengthens the company’s focus on international growth and enhances its ability to meet growing international demand for live entertainment. The change better aligns AEG’s world-class resources, global music network and industry-leading expertise to drive operational excellence across the business.
“As the live entertainment industry continues its unprecedented global growth, ensuring seamless integration across our regions is critical to our success,” said Marciano. “Adam’s track record in building markets, coupled with his strategic vision and operational expertise, makes him the ideal leader to drive AEG Presents’ international expansion in Europe, further strengthening our global business.”
Wilkes has been instrumental in building AEG Presents’ footprint in Asia Pacific, transforming it into a cornerstone of the company’s global operations. Since joining AEG in 2011 as part of the company’s initial expansion into Asia, he has played a pivotal role in establishing AEG’s presence in the region. Over the past 15 years, Wilkes has spearheaded major initiatives, including a strategic joint partnership with Frontier Touring, the development of Bangkok’s UOB Live, and Nagoya’s soon-to-open IG Arena. He has also delivered record-breaking tours with global superstars and premier sporting competitions, solidifying AEG Presents’ leadership in the Asia Pacific market.
In his new role, Wilkes will oversee AEG Presents’ operations across Europe and Asia-Pacific, collaborating closely with Alex Hill, President and CEO of AEG International. Together, they will align the company’s international concert promotion strategies, expand its portfolio of venues, and pursue new business opportunities that further strengthen AEG’s position as a leader in the global live entertainment industry.
As President and CEO of AEG International, Hill also brings years of exceptional leadership and focused operational oversight to his new role. With his successful track record overseeing the growth of AEG’s business and operation of its marquee venues in Europe, Hill will be well-suited to ensure the success of new AEG venues coming on-line in Asia, such as UOB Live in Bangkok and the soon to be opened IG Arena in Nagoya, Japan. Hill will also be focused on advancing other on-going projects such as the Bangkok Mall Arena and the arena-anchored entertainment district project planned for the redevelopment of the Osaka Expo Park.
ABOUT AEG
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, AEG is the world’s leading sports and live entertainment company. The company operates in the following business segments:
Through its worldwide network of venues, portfolio of powerful sports and music brands and its integrated entertainment districts, AEG entertains more than 90 million guests annually. More information about AEG can be found at www.aegworldwide.com.
Adam Wilkes, President and CEO of AEG Presents, Europe and Asia Pacific (Photo: AEG)
Alex Hill, President and CEO, AEG International (Photo: AEG)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after the audacious U.S. military operation in Venezuela, President Donald Trump on Sunday renewed his calls for an American takeover of the Danish territory of Greenland for the sake of U.S. security interests, while his top diplomat declared the communist government in Cuba is “in a lot of trouble.”
The comments from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the ouster of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro underscore that the U.S. administration is serious about taking a more expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.
With thinly veiled threats, Trump is rattling hemispheric friends and foes alike, spurring a pointed question around the globe: Who's next?
“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”
Asked during an interview with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday what the U.S.-military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”
Trump, in his administration's National Security Strategy published last month, laid out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a central guidepost for his second go-around in the White House.
Trump has also pointed to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which rejects European colonialism, as well as the Roosevelt Corollary — a justification invoked by the U.S. in supporting Panama’s secession from Colombia, which helped secure the Panama Canal Zone for the U.S. — as he's made his case for an assertive approach to American neighbors and beyond.
Trump has even quipped that some now refer to the fifth U.S. president's foundational document as the “Don-roe Doctrine.”
Saturday's dead-of-night operation by U.S. forces in Caracas and Trump’s comments on Sunday heightened concerns in Denmark, which has jurisdiction over the vast mineral-rich island of Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in a statement that Trump has "no right to annex" the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the United States, a fellow member of NATO, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.
“I would therefore strongly urge the U.S. to stop threatening a historically close ally and another country and people who have made it very clear that they are not for sale,” Frederiksen said.
Denmark on Sunday also signed onto a European Union statement underscoring that “the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their future must be respected” as Trump has vowed to “run” Venezuela and pressed the acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, to get in line.
Trump on Sunday mocked Denmark’s efforts at boosting Greenland’s national security posture, saying the Danes have added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s arsenal.
Greenlanders and Danes were further rankled by a social media post following the raid by a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller. The post shows an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the Stars and Stripes accompanied by the caption: “SOON."
“And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Amb. Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's chief envoy to Washington, said in a post responding to Miller, who is married to Trump's influential deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
During his presidential transition and in the early months of his return to the White House, Trump repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.
The issue had largely drifted out of the headlines in recent months. Then Trump put the spotlight back on Greenland less than two weeks ago when he said he would appoint Republican Gov. Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland.
The Louisiana governor said in his volunteer position he would help Trump “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”
Meanwhile, concern simmered in Cuba, one of Venezuela’s most important allies and trading partners, as Rubio issued a new stern warning to the Cuban government. U.S.-Cuba relations have been hostile since the 1959 Cuban revolution.
Rubio, in an appearance on NBC's “Meet the Press,” said Cuban officials were with Maduro in Venezuela ahead of his capture.
“It was Cubans that guarded Maduro,” Rubio said. “He was not guarded by Venezuelan bodyguards. He had Cuban bodyguards.” The secretary of state added that Cuban bodyguards were also in charge of “internal intelligence” in Maduro’s government, including “who spies on who inside, to make sure there are no traitors.”
Trump said that “a lot” of Cuban guards tasked with protecting Maduro were killed in the operation. The Cuban government said in a statement read on state television on Sunday evening that 32 officers were killed in the U.S. military operation.
Trump also said that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, is in tatters and will slide further now with the ouster of Maduro, who provided the Caribbean island subsidized oil.
“It's going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It's going down for the count.”
Cuban authorities called a rally in support of Venezuela’s government and railed against the U.S. military operation, writing in a statement: “All the nations of the region must remain alert, because the threat hangs over all of us.”
Rubio, a former Florida senator and son of Cuban immigrants, has long maintained Cuba is a dictatorship repressing its people.
“This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States," Rubio said.
Cubans like 55-year-old biochemical laboratory worker Bárbara Rodríguez were following developments in Venezuela. She said she worried about what she described as an “aggression against a sovereign state.”
“It can happen in any country, it can happen right here. We have always been in the crosshairs,” Rodríguez said.
AP writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana, Cuba, and Darlene Superville traveling aboard Air Force One contributed reporting.
In this photo released by the White House, President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Venezuela, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. (Molly Riley/The White House via AP)
