As top execs at Live Nation Canada, Erik Hoffman, Riley O’Connor and Melissa Bubb-Clarke are orchestrating one of the most ambitious stretches in the company's history. Together, the trio claim the No. 1 spot on Billboard Canada Power Players 2025.

Already the biggest players in the Canadian music business, Live Nation is just getting bigger – and they’re on track for a record-breaking summer. Rogers Stadium is opening at the end of June to host some of the most buzzed about shows this year, including the highest-grossing rock tour of all time, Coldplay's Music of the Spheres, and Oasis' buzzy reunion tour. It's a tangible symbol of Live Nation's ambitious plans for Canada, which include triple the number of stadium shows they've ever run in Toronto.

The company is also opening History Ottawa this year, adding another purpose-built music venue to its growing portfolio that includes long-running venues like Muskoka's KEE to Bala, Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom and Toronto's Mod Club and Opera House. With one major exception – Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which was promoted by Messina Touring (though Ticketmaster sold the tickets) – the company has had its fingerprints on nearly all of the biggest shows coming through Canada over the past year.

Hoffman and O'Connor have been lifers in Canadian live music, and they're excited to see the sector now at the top of the industry after years of being treated as "second-class citizens" of the business, as Hoffman puts it. “Entrepreneurs started the business, but then a lot of other really talented folks got into it and made sense of it,” he says. “They helped grow it up.”

Melissa Bubb-Clarke made the top 10 of the Billboard Canada Power Players list last year for a different company, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE). She was the SVP of Music & Live events, which included programming at Scotiabank Arena and Coca-Cola Coliseum. She’s worked at and with Live Nation in a variety of marketing and partnership roles throughout her career (where she first started as a receptionist nearly three decades ago), but returned officially this year in a prime new position: Chief Commercial Officer.

From a corporate partnership standpoint, sports was super viable in big business, and music was kind of confusing to people,” she says. “Now it’s evolved and become such a massive platform for not just the artist and the fans together – it's also become a platform for a lot of brands and corporate partners to be part of.”

Those factors have led to record profits for Live Nation, both in Canada and worldwide, and put its leaders at the top of this year's Power Players list.

Read a full cover story interview with O'Connor, Hoffman and Bubb-Clarke here.