Rugged Races, the group that brings you Rugged Manic, announced recently that Ronan Gardiner would be joining their team as the Cheif Revenue Officer. Gardiner formerly served as the VP, Publishing Director & Chief Revenue Officer at Hearst Magazines where he oversaw Men's Health, Runner's World, and Bicycling magazines. The Rugged Races team is excited about what Gardiner has to offer their organization:

“We have worked incredibly hard over the past nine years to build a portfolio of fun and challenging events, while also developing industry-leading production capabilities,” said Rob Dickens, Senior Vice President and co-founder of Rugged Races. “We’re excited to bring on board someone with Ronan's experience and sales management expertise to lead our sponsorship sales initiatives.” Bradford Scudder, Senior Vice President and co-founder added, “as we continue to acquire and develop new events, as well as increase the number of participants across our existing portfolio, we are confident that Ronan will help us to develop even more partnerships with brands who want to engage with our highly attractive audience of young, educated, active performance-driven men and women.”

Full Press Release Below.

BOSTON, MA (February 11, 2019) – Rugged Races LLC, a subsidiary of GateHouse Live and one of the largest endurance event companies in North America, today announced that Ronan Gardiner will be joining the company in the newly created role of VP, Chief Revenue Officer. Gardiner was most recently VP, Publishing Director & Chief Revenue Officer overseeing Men's Health, Runner's World and Bicycling magazines and their respective web sites.

“We have worked incredibly hard over the past nine years to build a portfolio of fun and challenging events, while also developing industry-leading production capabilities,” said Rob Dickens, Senior Vice President and co-founder of Rugged Races. “We’re excited to bring on board someone with Ronan's experience and sales management expertise to lead our sponsorship sales initiatives.” Bradford Scudder, Senior Vice President and co-founder added, “as we continue to acquire and develop new events, as well as increase the number of participants across our existing portfolio, we are confident that Ronan will help us to develop even more partnerships with brands who want to engage with our highly attractive audience of young, educated, active performance-driven men and women.”

GateHouse Live President, Jason Taylor, pointed out that “owning both events and media outlets (GateHouse Media is one of the largest publishers of locally-based media in the US) allows us to deeply connect with communities while also providing a comprehensive,
one-of-a-kind platform for our sponsor partners to engage with consumers in a meaningful and impactful way.”

Gardiner, an avid runner who regularly participates in road races, triathlons and Rugged Maniac obstacle course races, said that he is thrilled to join the company. “GateHouse Live is the industry leader in event production and execution from coast to coast. From High School Sports and Community Choice Awards to Expos, Festivals and Endurance Races, GateHouse is redefining community engagement through life-changing experiential events. And the connection that brands are able to forge with consumers at such events is both powerful and unique.”

About Rugged Races LLC:

Rugged Races is one of the largest endurance event companies in North America, attracting over 300,000 attendees to a wide variety of events each year. It offers events for all types of athletes, from marathons and cycling events to obstacle course races and fun runs. Its mission is two-fold: To produce world-class events that get people off their couches and doing something physical, social, and fun with their weekends, while offering its charitable and corporate partners multi-channel access to active lifestyle enthusiasts through on-site interactions, digital engagement, and exceptional local media coverage.

In August of last year, Rugged co-founders Brad Scudder and Rob Dickens announced the sale of a majority interest in their company to New Media Investment Group Inc. Rugged Races
has since become a key component of New Media’s events company, GateHouse Live, which now hosts over 460 events in over 300 markets in North America, with 650,000 annual attendees, and a database of over 5.1 million users. Parent company, GateHouse Media, is one of the largest publishers of locally-based media in the United States, publishing, as of March 2019, 145 daily newspapers, 325 community publications and more than 555 local market websites that reach more than 23 million people each week.

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