The Company

Mark has over 30 years of experience across several industries including: brewing, vehicle manufacturing, house building, financial services and most recently truck rental and contract hire. Mark has overseen the successful growth of various businesses. As Group CFO he grew the Henry Howard Finance Group by building a brand-new finance function and establishing a £120m revolving finance facility with British Business Bank leading to the IoD Finance Director of the Year Award for Wales. As UK CFO at Fraikin, Mark built new relationships while maintaining existing ones with all stakeholders and returned the business from a loss to a profit over a two-year period, leading to him being nominated in the West Midlands Finance Director of the Year Awards +£100m turnover category.

“Having worked across a number of different industries, for a range of different business alongside and for various leaders, I have gained a lot of experience both financially, commercially and operationally, Mark says, “I draw on this experience as CFO to support and work alongside all employees within PRG. I operate in an open, honest and transparent manner achieving results through effective communication and collaboration.”

Richard has wealth of knowledge and experience gained over 28 years of working in the Entertainment Industry and being part of the local UK and European PRG Management teams holding numerous critical roles since joining the group in 1999. Qualified as a Certified and Chartered Accountant Richard was the Financial Director and co-founder of The Spot Company that was acquired along with Midnight Design by PRG in 1999. In this time Richard has successfully led a number of international mergers, acquisitions, and integration projects for PRG, as well as overseeing the sustained growth and financial health of the UK & European companies during that period.

Richard’s primary focus in his new role as CEO for PRG UK will be re-establishing the Company’s customer focus and further developing our core offerings across all markets. He enjoys spending time with his family, playing guitar and Moto-crossing.

Simon is the Chief Financial Officer for PRG’s EMEA operations. He is focussed on providing financial leadership and functional expertise to the EMEA region, alongside wider advisory support to the business.

He trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant at PWC and has acquired 15+ years’ experience in finance. Most recently, he joined us from Claire’s Accessories, where he worked as the European Finance Director from 2013, before running the European Operations for the past 3 years.

When he’s not at work, Simon enjoys playing tennis and football. But he has also used his love for sports to help raise funds for Unicef, when he participated in a charity bike ride, riding 140 miles from Birmingham to London.

Light & Sound Design, popularly known in the industry as LSD, was a professional lighting rental specialist with its origins in the concert touring industry. With locations in the US and in London and Birmingham in the UK, the company was at the forefront of supplying lighting, rigging and automation to the touring industry. Light & Sound Design was merged into Production Resource Group in 1998, and some of the team remain with the company to this day.

Midnight Design was a specialist theatre lighting company. Having established itself as a major theatre supplier in the US, Production Resource Group acquired Midnight Design in 1999, in effort to expand that success into Europe.

The Spot Company, a London based supplier of lighting services and equipment to the Special Events market, was acquired in 1999 to become part of the PRG Lighting Group.

VLPS Lighting Services was a lighting rental company born out of the VARI*LITE company. VLPS was established in 1997 following VARI*LITE's flotation on the Nasdaq. It acted as the rental division for both the lighting and the Virtuoso console product line, as well as offering lighting from other selected manufacturers. When VARI*LITE's sales and manufacturing was sold to Genlyte Group in 2002, VLPS continued with the rental business as well as developing the console line. VLPS became part of Production Resource Group in 2004.

With the aim of growing its UK lighting business, PRG acquired Essential Lighting from the Staging Connections Group in 2008. Essential Lighting was maintained under a separate brand, delivering high quality lighting services and equipment to the live event industry and dry hire service to industry specialists. In 2011 it became part of PRG's main brand and many of the Essential Lighting team have remained with Production Resource Group's UK operation.

With rigging and automation vital to event lighting, PRG took the decision to expand its UK business with the acquisition of Summit Steel in 2009. The company was maintained as a separate brand under the Production Resource Group umbrella, with the management and staff staying on after the deal. Many of Summit Steel's rigging experts are still part of PRG's UK operation today.

To strengthen its expertise in video technology and services for the events and entertainment industry, Production Resource Group acquired XL Video in 2015.

Jere is widely recognized as a transformative figure in entertainment and event production, having led PRG to become a global company serving the theatre, film, television, broadcast, concert touring, events and staging and hotels markets. Today PRG has 72 locations spanning five continents and holds over 350 patents and trademarks for its proprietary technology. Jere founded Production Resource Group, L.L.C., in 1995, and guided its growth through strategic acquisitions in lighting, audio, video, automation, scenic and labor solutions.

He is part of the fourth generation of a family of theatre pioneers and took his first job in a scenic shop at age 16. Among his many professional accomplishments, he presented EFX, an entertainment landmark which opened at the MGM Las Vegas and ran for nearly eight years. He also produced Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, the most technically complex production ever mounted on a Broadway stage. Jere has earned top honors across market segments, including four Tony Awards, multiple Drama Desk Awards, and an Engineering Emmy Award for PRG’s GroundControl Followspot system. He is also the recipient of the Parnelli Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest recognition in the live event industry.

Stephan Paridaen is a Belgian born entrepreneur who has been involved in the entertainment technology industry for over 25 years. He studied economics at the University of Antwerp and received an MBA at the Vrije University of Brussels, all while founding a software company for the construction industry. He then continued his education and earned a degree from Harvard University.

In 1993, Stephan was hired as laureate of the Prince Albert Fund by Barco, an industry leader in digital projection and imaging technology. He was sent to Prague to develop the emerging Eastern European markets and shortly after transferred to Singapore as the company’s Asia sales and marketing lead.

Upon returning to Belgium, Stephan founded Barco’s LED display division which led to the development of projection systems that transformed digital cinema globally and formed the basis for Barco’s Media & Entertainment division, which he led from 2001 to 2009.

In 2010, Stephan joined PRG out of Belgium, where he’s played a key role overseeing the acquisitions, development and continual growth of the EMEA and APAC markets, improving operational results and expanding offerings as President and COO of the company.

Now in 2022, Stephan begins his next chapter at PRG as CEO based out of New York City.

As Chief Operations Officer, Europe, Gary Boyd is responsible for all aspects of PRG operations in Europe and the UK. He also oversees asset management in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Gary began his entertainment technology career in 1985 when he joined Score Systems Ltd., a theatrical lighting company based in Kitchener, Ontario, as the company’s equipment rental manager. Following Score Systems’ acquisition by Christie Lites in 1995, Gary served as general manager of the Kitchener facility. In 1996, Gary left Christie Lites to establish an office for Westsun in Toronto.

In 1999, Gary became vice president of operations for Westsun’s offices in the United States and Canada. In 2002, he joined PRG as general manager of the company’s Toronto office.

He initially spent time in the UK during PRG’s acquisition of VLPS in 2004. He became VP Operations for PRG in North America in 2007. In 2008 Gary was once again asked to oversee acquisitions in the UK – integrating Essential Lighting and Summit Steel into the group. He subsequently looked after the consolidation of Birmingham and London facilities into the current Longbridge location.

In 2009 Gary was asked to relocate to the UK becoming Chief Operations Officer, and his family joined him in 2010. Two years later his role was expanded to additionally oversee operations for all of Europe.

Outside of PRG his interests include Skeet Shooting, which he does with his daughter Maddy; flying – Gary has his private flying license; travel; and tinkering with a small collection of cars.