Don Vaccaro

Don Vaccaro at Ticket Summit Conference, Las Vegas, July 2014

Don Vaccaro is an American businessperson. He is the founder of TicketNetwork and RCN Capital.

Ticketing career

Vaccaro is the Executive Chairman of TicketNetwork,[1] a secondary ticketing business he founded in 2002. Prior to founding the company, Vaccaro had worked as a secondary ticket broker since 1979,[2] starting by selling tickets on the street outside entertainment venues. The first set of tickets he sold were to a Jethro Tull concert at Madison Square Garden. He is also the founder of the TicketNews information website and the Ticket Summit annual conference and trade show.[3] TicketNetwork provides point-of-sale software and aggregates the inventory of ticket brokers to provide to online secondary ticket outlets.[4] Vaccaro served as the company’s CEO from 2002 to 2012.[5]

Lending career

Vaccaro is the CEO of RCN (Rehab Cash Now) Capital, which makes small business loans,[6][7] in addition to short-term high-interest loans to investors. He also runs Entertainment Financial, which makes loans to TicketNetwork vendors.[8] In 2013 Vaccaro attempted to save the Community Bank of Bridgeport before it went under, however his bid was rejected by regulators, allowing the bank to fail.[9]

Writing and speaking

Vaccaro has spoken at events including Wharton Business school, Intix conference, Pollstar touring conference, NATB, TicketSummit, event and arena marketing conference, ALSD conference, the Billboard Touring Conference regarding secondary ticketing issues.[10] He has also written opinion pieces for Connecticut newspapers.[11]

Personal life

In 2012 Vaccaro faced criminal charges following an Oscar party in Connecticut, after which he entered rehabilitation for alcohol abuse.[12][13] He returned to the post later that year as Executive Chairman; the charges were dropped after Hartford Superior Court Judge, Jane Alexander, agreed on May 29 that the charges could be dismissed if Vaccaro completed a two-year accelerated rehabilitation program, a form of probation, imposing conditions such as treatment for substance abuse and abstension from alcohol. [14][5] Vaccaro also owns the Moose Peak Light lighthouse near Jonesport, Connecticut.[15]

Philanthropy

In 2016 Vaccaro and pastor Rev. Dr. Boise Kimber launched Grace Church Websites, a non-profit which offers local churches and nonprofit groups a wide variety of free Web-related services, including domain registration, website maintenance, annual domain renewal, content management system, and hosting. Since February of 2016, the company has worked with more than 600 churches and nonprofit organizations to launch free websites.[16] [17]

References

  1. ↑ "New York Attorney General Signals War on Ticket Bots Is Just Beginning". Billboard.
  2. ↑ "TicketNetwork just shrugged when its brokers reneged". The Seattle Times. 4 April 2015.
  3. ↑ "Ticket Masters".
  4. ↑ "Billboard".
  5. 1 2 "Unrepentant Vaccaro to rejoin TicketNetwork". Hartford Business Journal.
  6. ↑ Hartford Courant UGC (16 October 2015). "North End Church Revitization Nearly Completed with RCN Loan". Courant Community.
  7. ↑ Hartford Courant (20 March 2016). "Church Hopes New Building Will Be 'Anchor' In Hartford's Promise Zone". courant.com.
  8. ↑ "TicketNetwork founder creates niche loaning cash to home flippers". Hartford Business Journal.
  9. ↑ Jana Kasperkevic. "Too small to survive: inside one bank's struggle to save itself". the Guardian.
  10. ↑ "Billboard".
  11. ↑ Hartford Courant (31 January 2016). "Keeping CT Casinos Strong Is Vital". courant.com.
  12. ↑ "TicketNetwork settles suit by ex-CEO as Connecticut probe continues".
  13. ↑ "Black Eye for Ticket Reseller". The New York Times. 1 March 2012.
  14. ↑ Dempsey, Christine (29 May 2012). "Former TicketNetwork CEO Vaccaro Denies Making Slurs". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  15. ↑ "Lighthouse film project runs aground over blaring foghorn". The Bangor Daily News.
  16. ↑ "Grace Church Websites launches free websites for Greater New Haven churches, nonprofit organization". New Haven Register.
  17. ↑ "Bridging the digital divide, company gives churches free websites". Religion News Service.
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