The Pittsburgh Penguins announced the following front office executive staff hirings and promotions.
Promotions:
- Drew Praster – Chief Ticketing Officer
- Steve Kelley – Senior Vice President, Partnerships
Hirings:
- Miles Ritenour – Vice President, Marketing
- Nate Hillman – Controller
Praster has been promoted to Chief Ticketing Officer for the Penguins after spending the past two seasons with the team as Senior Vice President, Ticketing. In his current role, he oversees the entire ticketing department and its subsidiaries which includes the sales staff, customer service, and ticket operations groups. He’s responsible for a team that accounts for season tickets, premium tickets and suites, groups, single-game tickets, as well as renewing existing ticket holders.
Before joining the Penguins, Praster spent 14 seasons with the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA, most recently as Vice President, Ticket Sales & Service. He initially joined the Hornets in 2009 as an inside sales consultant and rose quickly through the ranks of the sales department. He spent one season each in inside sales, season ticket sales and premium sales before moving into a leadership role in 2012 as Inside Sales Manager. Over the next several years he continued to move into various leadership roles until eventually rising to the role of Vice President of Ticket Sales & Services in 2019, overseeing the day-to-day operations of both the new business and client retention teams.
Praster was recognized as a member of Charlotte Business Journal’s ‘40 Under 40’ list in 2022 and received the NC Shape Sport Management Professional of the year award in 2021. He is a member of Leadership Pittsburgh XLI and sits on the Association Board of Directors for the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh. Praster is a graduate of Chowan University in 2008, and he received his MBA from the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill in 2022.
Kelley has been promoted to Senior Vice President, Partnerships after joining the organization in 2023 as Vice President, Partnership Marketing. In this role, he is responsible for the team’s Corporate Sponsorships, where he oversees existing partnerships as well as secures new marketing partners. He also spearheads all partnership operations and the club’s events and hospitality function.
Prior to joining the Penguins, Kelley spent seven years with Fenway Sports Management where he was focused on sponsorship development across the Fenway Sports Group portfolio with a particular focus on the Boston Red Sox. From 2015-2017, Kelley served as Special Assistant to the President after spending two years as Special Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer. The Milton, Massachusetts native began his career with the Red Sox as an intern in the summer of 2012.
Kelley attended Boston College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 2014. He and his wife, Jaclyn, reside in Baden, Pennsylvania with their four children, Annie, Jack, Grace and Kate.
Ritenour joins the Penguins organization after spending the previous eight years at Anheuser-Busch, most recently leading the marketing initiatives for Michelob ULTRA over the past four years. Prior to leading Michelob ULTRA, he was the Director of Marketing Communications for Bud Light from 2016-2020. During his time at Anheuser-Busch, he received several accolades for campaigns including two Sports Emmys as well as multiple Cannes Lions, CLIOs and other advertising industry honors from the ANA, One Show and D&AD.
Prior to his time with Anheuser-Busch, he also spent time in advertising and public relations industry with New York City based agencies WME|IMG and Ketchum.
Ritenour has roots in Western Pennsylvania and is a 2010 graduate of Point Park University and Greater Latrobe Senior High School.
Hillman assumes the role of Controller for the organization where he manages the preparation of internal and external financial statements, measures and analyzes financial results, and oversees the internal control environment.
Prior to joining the Penguins, Hillman worked at Wabtec in various accounting/controller roles for the previous eight years where he helped the company grow from $3 billion to $10 billion through a series of significant acquisitions and organic growth. He also spent two years at Alcoa as Manager of External Reporting and eight years at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Hillman is a native of Greensburg, Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Penn State University with a degree in accounting.
