Ronald Bension

President and CEO, ASM Global

Ron Bension was named president and CEO of ASM Global in March 2021. ASM Global is the world’s leading provider of innovative venue services and live experiences. The company’s elite venue network spans five continents, with a portfolio of more than 325 of the world’s most prestigious arenas, stadiums, convention and exhibition centers, and performing arts venues.

Previously, he was president of the House of Blues Entertainment Clubs and Theater for Live Nation in 2010. There he oversaw the operation of 87 venues around the US, creating the largest portfolio and club platform in the world, with over 13,000 events and 12 million guest a year. Prior to this role, Bension was CEO of TicketsNow, working with the team at Ticketmaster to restructure the resale sites operations and business initiatives. During his more than 30-year career, he has led several major e-commerce, recreation, and entertainment companies to financial and strategic success.

Bension held principal roles as CEO of Tickets.com, where he restructured the publicly traded online ticketing technology and service provider. He helped raise more than $20 million in new capital, installed a marquee management team, integrated 11 acquired companies and implemented multiple leading-edge digital ticketing technologies, resulting in significant cost savings, exponential revenue growth and increased market share. He also managed the company’s relationships with the 2002 Winter Olympics and the World Series. Then in 2005 he engineered the sale of Tickets.com’s to Major League Baseball. After the sale, he took on the CEO role at WMG's Sportnet, the leading developer and operator of action sports websites in the country.

Bension served as Chairman and CEO of Universal Studios Recreation Group from 1990-1996, where he oversaw the $1 billion revenue global leisure recreation company through its $4 Billion expansion program in Orlando and Osaka, Japan. After Universal, Bension moved to President and CEO of Sega GameWorks, a multi-unit, location-based entertainment company founded by Steven Spielberg. During his three years at the company's helm, he engineered a dramatic increase in the number of venues, revenue and profitability. He was honored for his achievements with the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2001.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Sea World Entertainment and is a Trustee at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. He holds a BS in criminal justice from California State University, Los Angeles.