CCO

Josh Rowe joins the Ad.Ventures team as Chief Creative Officer.

Over the past twenty years, he has been dedicated to cultivating the intersection of Brand Partnerships, Media, and the Live Music Industry, at companies including Dayglo Presents, Hype Machine, BuzzMedia, and PureVolume. His most notable creations include Hype Hotel, Brooklyn Bowl Family Reunion and PureVolume House at SXSW. He has delivered one-of-a-kind experiences for top brands including Mazda, Harley-Davidson, Taco Bell, Fender, Diageo, and H-P. Throughout his career, Josh has been on the forefront of activation and event strategy, shaping programs to compliment the consumer experience, putting the experience first, creating reciprocal relationships with sponsors, brands and attendees.

“Josh and I have been colleagues for over a decade and I have always been impressed with his skills as an event producer and sales executive” says Stephen Stershein, CEO of Ad.Ventures, “he knows what it takes to deliver high quality branded experiences and to operate independent venues and festivals successfully and at scale, and i am excited for him to bring that knowledge to the Ad.Ventures team and network!“

Co-founder

With nearly two decades of experience in enterprise and music technology, Mikey Lee serves as CSO and co-founder. Lee is responsible for creating and facilitating the development of the company's sales and client development strategy. Lee will lead revenue strategy across individual entities associated with all Ad.Ventures’ business platforms and direct business relationships as well as management and forecast execution for its sales division.

Prior to launching Ad.Ventures, Lee served as founder and CEO of Gamut Live, represented Heard Presents’ private events and as Head of Business Development & Partnerships for Prism.Fm, where he designed its partnership strategies. For the past 18 months, Lee served as fundraising chair and operations lead at the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA). Formed at the onset of the COVID-19 shutdown, NIVA represents more than 3,000 venues, promoters, and festivals in all 50 states and led the #SaveOurStages campaign, resulting in landmark legislation establishing the “Shuttered Venue Operators" Grant program to be administered by the Small Business Administration.

Co-founder and CEO

An executive with more than two decades of experience in the music and live events industry, Steve Sternschein serves as the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder overseeing all of Ad.Ventures’ company divisions, resources and primary corporate matters.

From March 2020 thru June 2021, Sternschein served as one of the founding board members and treasurer of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA). Formed at the onset of the COVID-19 shutdown, NIVA represents more than 3,000 venues, promoters, and festivals in all 50 states and originated and led the #SaveOurStages campaign, resulting in landmark legislation establishing the “Shuttered Venue Operators" Grant program. NIVA's mission is to preserve and nurture the ecosystem of independent live venues, promoters, and festivals throughout the United States. During his time with NIVA, Sternschein raised more than $10 million in funding for NIVA’s “Save Our Stages” advocacy effort, assisted in drafting the legislation that ultimately resulted in the $16.2B Shuttered Venue Operator Grant program, while conceiving, selling and executive producing Save Our Stages Fest (#SOSFest), in collaboration with Google, YouTube Music, and Anheuser-Busch. The award-winning digital festival was viewed by over 7M unique viewers in its initial airing, with performances by the Foo Fighters, Miley Cyrus, the Roots, and many more from empty independent venues around the US.

VP, Partnerships & Strategic Services

Ian Fine joins the Ad.Ventures team as the Vice President of Partnerships and Strategic Services.

Ian brings a diverse background of experiences working on both sides of the entertainment industry as a buyer and seller of sponsorship. Ian has spent his career leveraging the power of music to create impactful partnership strategies to build brands. Most recently, Ian lead the business development team at Liquid Death and formulated and deployed the sponsorship strategy that has taken the industry by storm. Prior to his tenor at Liquid Death, He spent 3+ years at Oak View Group contributing partnership sales for their robust list of managed properties including their owned and operated arenas (UBS Arena and Climate Pledge Arena), the unique Arena Alliance, and their varied consulting partners. He successfully constructed first of their kind partnerships with blue chip brands like Heineken, Verizon, BMW, Hyundai, GEICO, and more. Recognized for challenging the status quo, Ian’s entrepreneurial spirit and passion for live will provide Ad.Venture’s clients with thoughtful and tactical solutions to use music to cultivate deeper relationships with their customers.

Director Client Services

Avid concert-goer and self-proclaimed music connoisseur, Lauren’s experience includes sales development, customer acquisition, strategic partnerships and business development through her career in both media and entertainment. Lauren Moody serves as the Director of Client services for Ad.Ventures. In this role, Lauren will lead the venue onboarding process as well as be the day-to-day contact with our clients. Lauren has worked with labels, artists, venues, promoters, festivals and brands to identify sales and marketing solutions for the promotion of live music/new releases.

Prior to joining Ad.Ventures in 2021, Lauren worked as an Account Manager for Bandsintown for both brand and promotional teams. Lauren was responsible for working with promoters, artist management, venue marketing departments and artists to help promote and sell out their events. Additionally, Lauren helped execute Bandsintown’s first fan data-driven SXSW showcase in 2019, spotlighting emerging artists as part of the Bandsintown Big Break Program. From November 2020 to June 2021, Lauren also volunteered as the partnership coordinator for the National Independent Venue Association where she responded to the partnership coordinator email daily, acted as the primary liaison between the partner and NIVA's marketing team, and managed all deliverables including social media, email, or website needs.