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In 2021, SeatGeek started making moves to go public. It wasn’t entirely unexpected. The popular tech and mobile ticketing company, founded in 2009, spent a decade building partnerships with sports teams, leagues, venues, promoters, and other partners to attract millions of users to its platform. Fast Company and others recognized it as one of the most innovative companies for live events. But to go public, SeatGeek would need the right person to refine its financial processes, build its accounting team, and lead the complex transaction—and it found that person in veteran accounting leader Pamela Bucher.
Bucher joined SeatGeek as vice president and global controller in the summer of 2021, and brought more than thirty years of experience to the role. The Pennsylvania native studied accounting and business information systems at Shippensburg University and completed an MBA at Penn State. After starting her career as an auditor at Arthur Andersen, Bucher spent her formative years at the Hershey Company and then Revlon.
A long tenure gave her the rare opportunity to serve in many roles and master the inner workings of an iconic multinational food manufacturer. “I was able to hold many roles at Hershey, and it was a perfect fit for me because the combination of systems, numbers, and business has always appealed to me,” she explains.
“I was able to hold many diverse roles at Hershey, and it was a perfect fit for me because the combination of systems, numbers, and business has always appealed to me.”
Pamela Bucher
Bucher started at Hershey as an internal auditor and soon moved into accounting and analyst roles where she was implementing systems and coordinating integrations. In the late 1990s, she worked with IT professionals to prepare the company for the Y2K transition and complete an important enterprise software transition.
As she moved into leadership roles, Bucher gained broad experience and a deep understanding of how financial decisions impact all parts of an organization. She also focused on building strong partnerships with her counterparts. “Good relationships in a company help financial leaders know what the business is driving towards so they can bridge the gap between business and accounting,” she says.
By 2009, Bucher had managed a Sarbanes-Oxley certification process, implemented a new profit and loss system, and led financial planning and analysis. Hershey’s CFO was impressed and gave her an expatriate assignment as the CFO of Hershey Canada. Bucher took her husband and four children to Canada, where she led the full finance team and spent nearly three years leading major business initiatives, including the integration of a key strategic acquisition. In 2012, Bucher returned to Pennsylvania and finished out her tenure at Hershey as the company’s global controller.
When Bucher came to SeatGeek in 2021, the company was already evaluating paths to become a public company. Although the COVID-19 pandemic had devastated the live events industry, concerts and sporting events were starting to resume. “I had to assess the processes and team and bring my experience to bear to determine what we would need to get in place and how to help best prepare the company to meet its goals,” she says.
While SeatGeek had a strong accounting function in place, public companies must meet strict regulations in financial reporting. First, Bucher worked on completing the audits of the historical financial statements and building a team to bring outsourced functions in-house. She made key hires, put new processes and timelines in place, and worked to change workflows and mindsets to prepare team members and employees for life as a scrutinized public entity with shareholder responsibilities.
“Our enterprise ticketing software allows our customers to efficiently grow their businesses while delivering the best possible experience for fans, and that’s where our future growth initiatives are focused.”
Pamela Bucher
Going public will put SeatGeek on a new and different playing field. While the company’s roots lie in helping consumers buy and sell tickets via its marketplace, SeatGeek also powers a new, open entertainment industry through its enterprise business to give teams, venues, and shows seamless access to their audiences.
“Our enterprise ticketing software allows our customers to efficiently grow their businesses while delivering the best possible experience for fans, and that’s where our future growth initiatives are focused,” she explains.
SeatGeek powers over two hundred clients across sports and entertainment, including the New Orleans Saints, Dallas Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Jujamcyn Theaters’ five Broadway theaters in New York City; it also has league-wide agreements with the National Football League, Major League Soccer, and tickets over half of the English Premier League in the UK.
In 2021, SeatGeek secured a deal to handle all ticketing for all Barclays Center events, including Brooklyn Nets games, New York Liberty games, and concerts. Fans use SeatGeek’s digital platform to purchase, manage, or transfer tickets on desktop and mobile devices in real time. Bucher says her colleagues are pursuing similar deals at other venues as part of SeatGeek’s business plans.
As SeatGeek’s leaders prepare to stand on the trading floor, they are putting the right pieces into place. They have strong primary ticketing relationships, a leading tech platform, growing brand awareness, millions of users, and a solid financial team. One day soon, they’ll ring the opening bell and celebrate a successful company milestone years in the making.
Connor Group congratulates Pamela Bucher on this well-deserved honor! Working closely with Pamela and SeatGeek on their public company readiness has been a privilege and we look forward to the continued relationship. In the last decade, Connor Group has assisted on 200-plus IPOs and is a leader in preparing companies for IPOs and the growth that follows.
