Why These Five Aussie Executives Got On Billboard’s Touring Power Players List

The power standing of Australian live music executives in the global sector was confirmed when five of them were named in Billboard’s new Touring Power Players list.

This comes a month after Live Performance Australia reported that concert attendance and revenue reached an all-time high in 2024. More Aussies attended concerts, rising by 17.3% to 14 million. Total revenue was $6.4 billion.

At the same time, promoters were marvelling at how quickly international acts were upgrading to arena status in just a tour or two.

All five generated big numbers in Australia. But, importantly, their influence and impact were felt far outside Australian shores.

Dion Brant

CEO, Frontier Touring; President/CEO, AEG Presents Asia Pacific

As CEO of Frontier Touring and reputed in the industry as a master strategist, Dion Brant kept the company in the global eye.

In the last financial year, it sold over a million tickets and grossed US$117,574,755, striking hard with Teddy Swims and Luke Combs. He was also lauded in Billboard’s 2025 Power Players for driving tours by Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney and Foo Fighters.

However, midway through the year, Brant gained a greater international profile when he was asked to expand his duties to become President and CEO of AEG Presents Asia Pacific, Frontier’s partner.

Based in Melbourne, his extra duties are to spearhead AEG Presents’ growth, development and footprint throughout the region with festivals and concert tours.

Susan Heymann

Chief Operating Officer, Frontier Touring

In 2023, the National Live Music Awards hailed Susan Heymann as a Living Legend, for her achievements as a high achiever, a high achiever female and a role model for future high achievers.

After doing a science degree, Heymann joined Chugg Entertainment as an intern and worked up to managing director.

She kept the role when Chugg joined Frontier Touring in 2019 as a joint venture, and later rose to become a top executive at Frontier.

Although generally reluctant to be in the media spotlight, Heymann was very clear on boundaries in the music industry. These included the importance of not just giving women jobs but also empowering them to make decisions.

Globally Heymann was lauded in 2024 by Pollstar as part of its Women Of Live series, and over the years by the Nashville-based Country Music Association for her role in bringing country names Alan Jackson, Taylor Swift, Brad Paisley, Brooks & Dunn, and Tim McGraw for the first time, and using CMC Rocks as a launching pad for Lady Antebellum, Jason Aldean, Toby Keith, Kelsea Ballerini, Luke Combs and Kip Moore.

On the Fear At The Top podcast, Chugg hailed her as one of the greatest and most respected music executives in the world.

Michael Coppel

Chairman, Live Nation Australia and New Zealand

After running his own company, Michael Coppel Presents (MCP), in 2012, Coppel changed the landscape of the Australian touring circuit forever when he sold 80% of MCP to Live Nation and became its head for Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).

The man who graduated in law from the University of Melbourne recounted to this writer, “I was the first of the major promoters to join a multinational because I could see the world, and our industry, was globalising.

“Far more deals were being done not by territory-by-territory but for the whole world. I just felt the future of the independent promoter in Australia was over.”

Since then, LN ANZ has sold over 35 million tickets. Both Coppel and the ANZ company continue to get kudos internationally for their success, and in 2017, Coppel was honoured with a Member of the Order of Australia medal.

In the last financial year, Live Nation ANZ was the most successful Australian promoter, grossing $312,166,481 and shifting over 2.7 million tickets. It had four of the five biggest tours, with Coldplay (grossing $85.9 million, and selling close to 724,000 seats) out front, and including Pearl Jam, Travis Scott and The Weeknd.

The next step is the opening of the 3,000–seat Northbridge Musical Hall in Perth. LN also bought New Zealand festival producer Team Event, behind Christchurch’s Electric Avenue, which draws 40,000 over each of two days.

Geoff Jones

Founder/Chair TEG

Until March this year, when he moved up to be Chair, Geoff Jones was Ticketek Entertainment Group (TEG)’s CEO, for over 14 years, building it up into a global force.

With a strategy attributed to his 16 years in the Australian Defence Force (he climbed up to Lieutenant-Colonel) before he joined ticketing division Ticketek as CEO, and sports and entertainment firm SEL, Jones quickly made the Sydney-based TEG a global empire, amalgamating ticketing, live entertainment, technology and data analytics.

It now has 30 businesses, including divisions in Europe, Asia and North America, as well as TEG Live, TEG Sport, TEG Rugby Live and TEG Experiences, and existing promoter companies run by Paul Dainty and the Van Egmond family, Laneway and Handsome Tours. It also runs SXSW Sydney and Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.

Ticketek shifts over 20 million tickets in Australia and New Zealand, with offices around the world. This has been sped up when it was acquired in 2019 for a reported $1.3 billion by US private equity company Silver Lake, which specialises in technology investment.

“Cost of business post-COVID is up 30% to 40% and crowds are doing it hard,” Jones said.

TEG is ranked second on Pollstar’s ANZ Promoter list with local ticket sales of over 1.6 million and a turnover of $135.5 million.

In 2025, Jones was awarded the Order of Australia medal for “service to business and to the entertainment industry.”

Paul Dainty

President/CEO, TEG Dainty

Being born in the UK, Paul Dainty had a global viewpoint as far back as the early ‘70s.

He could have ended up in the film world. His first job out of school was as a “runner” at Shepparton Studios in London, and he was offered a trainee director course with the BBC.

Instead, he took a job at a music agency, which involved travelling the world with its clients. While accompanying Roy Orbison to Australia, he saw the huge potential in the touring market and relocated to Melbourne and set up the Dainty Group and Dainty Corporation.

His contacts in the UK and US helped land monster acts as Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, ABBA, David Bowie, U2, Prince, Jackson 5, Neil Diamond, Cat Stevens, Guns N’ Roses, Duran Duran, Diana Ross, Michael Bublé, George Michael, Katy Perry, Eminem (drawing 257,542 fans), Phil Collins (220,000), Hugh Jackman, Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, Basement Jaxx vs The Metropolitan Orchestra, Peter Hook, Air Supply and Carly Rae Jepsen.

Of the current Oprah Winfrey shows, he admits, “I pestered her for ten years; she’s so busy.”

There were also theatre productions, wrestling and concerts held at WA’s Sandalford Swan Valley and Sandalford Margaret River and Tempus Two Winery in the Hunter Valley, NSW.

Such was his success and charity works as the star-studded Fire Fight that he was recognised with two Order of Australia awards, first as a Member in 2017 and Officer in 2023

In 2016, his company, Dainty Company, was acquired by TEG.

He produced and promoted shows across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Southeast Asia, and South Africa. Among them, he took Eminem and Lionel Richie to South Africa and South East Asia, and Michael Bublé across Asia.

SportBusiness International magazine ranked him as one of the world’s 20 most influential promoters, and he was once ranked by Billboard as the 5th largest promoter in the world.

As part of his global footprint, Dainty also helped finance productions as Tina Turner The Musical (he spent seven years landing the deal) and Beautiful Noise, the musical by Neil Diamond, a godfather to one of Dainty’s children.

In October 2025, independent of TEG Dainty, he and son Sam launched an artist management company, Voyager Management Group, to launch Australian acts across the world, using their international contacts.