Sean Henry
President/Chief Operating Officer

Now entering his third season as the President/Chief Operating Officer of the Nashville Predators and Bridgestone Arena, Sean Henry (Twitter: @PREDSident) has brought a unique and aggressive approach to arena booking and operations, ticket and sponsorship sales and government affairs to his position. As President and COO, he is responsible for assisting Chief Executive Officer Jeff Cogen in all business operations of the franchise and venue.

In his first two seasons with the team, Henry has been a busy man, guiding Bridgestone Arena to its first-ever consecutive Top 10 Pollstar year-end rankings. He was instrumental in helping Bridgestone Arena secure a new lease with the city of Nashville, keeping the downtown staple thriving and growing through 2028. Henry also helped guide the Nashville Predators to their most successful sales season to date, with a franchise record 25 sellouts in 2011-12 and an all-time high 96 percent ticket renewal rate.

Prior to joining the Predators, Henry spent 11 years with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Palace Sports and Entertainment, serving as their Executive Vice President and COO. While overseeing business operations for the Lightning, St. Pete Times Forum and Single-A baseball’s Asheville Tourists, the company saw dramatic increases in media, ticket, sponsorship, suite and event revenues. The St. Pete Times Forum became one of the busiest venues in the country, built around a Stanley Cup Championship in 2004.

Henry’s two years prior to his stay in Tampa were spent as Vice President of Sales and Marketing with Unity Motion in St. Louis, Mo., the first company to design, develop and market High Definition television systems to retail markets. Unity Motion boasts the distinction of the first ever live HD broadcast across the United States and the first live sporting event in HD with the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers.

The Long Island native started working at the tender age of three, helping his father on construction sites. Henry was charged with the largest of tasks – from picking up nails to watching cement cure, he did it all. Henry then entered the sports and entertainment industry in 1983 when he joined Volume Services Inc., as a busboy and would serve in various building management roles with the company from through 1997. In his time with Volume Services Henry served as the General Manager of the Palace at Auburn Hills, home of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, the Regional General Manager of the Trans World Dome, home of the NFL’s St. Louis Rams and as a project manager on an array of new accounts and construction projects, with his last project being Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, the then-home of the NFL’s Washington Redskins.

Henry counts being the runner-up at the Pinewood Derby quarterfinals at the age of 9 with his hand-built O’Henry Bar car as one of his greatest work rewards, right after having his name engraved on the Stanley Cup.

Henry serves on the boards of The Nashville Predators Foundation, and The Nashville Downtown Partnership, and he and Tracey are very involved in their children’s schools, sports teams and direct fundraising for Attention Home, a home for abused children in Safety Harbor, Florida.

Henry, a graduate of The State University of New York, married Tracey Manning, a.k.a. the Suburban Diva, 20 years ago. They have four children – sons Steven and Matthew, and daughters Amy and Jessica

You can contact Sean via email at shenry@nashvillepredators.com or on twitter @PREDSident.