New Vogue, Rock the Ruins CEO hopes to 'bring in the music that people in this city want'

Rory Appleton, Indianapolis Star
·2 min read

Forty5, the concert promotion company that owns The Vogue Theatre and operates Rock the Ruins at Holliday Park, named its first-ever CEO on Wednesday.

Jenny Boyts will assume some of the day-to-day leadership responsibilities at Forty5, which also programs shows at The Toby at Newfields and annual events such as Ganggang's Butter art fair. Partners Andrew Davis, Eric Tobias and Scott Kraege will remain at the head of the company as its owners.

Jenny Boyts has been hired as the first CEO of Forty5, the concert promotion company that owns The Vogue Theatre and programs Rock the Ruins at Holliday Park.
Jenny Boyts has been hired as the first CEO of Forty5, the concert promotion company that owns The Vogue Theatre and programs Rock the Ruins at Holliday Park.

"We want to keep Forty5's lineups inclusive and diverse," Boyts told IndyStar in an interview. "We want to bring in the music that people in this city want while not sticking to the status quo."

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Boyts will lead Forty5's events team, which programs The Vogue and the company's other shows, while looking to expand its promotional services to nonprofits and other city organizations looking to host live music. She said her team will look to book shows that take cultural, sexual orientation, gender and racial diversity into account.

Boyts no stranger to community-focused event planning

She previously served as vice president of special projects at IFF, a Midwestern community development organization. Boyts also serves as the president of Indy Pride's board of directors.

Boyts said organization Indy Pride's annual festival sparked an interest in programming live events.

"Gathering people using live music and bringing artists who look and sound like our community has become an important part of Indy Pride, and I'm looking to take those skills and expand the impact across the city," Boyts said.

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Boyts is originally from Texas. She graduated from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis with a degree in social work before earning her master's in public administration from the University of Colorado, Denver.

“Jenny has consistently demonstrated an ability to create meaningful and lasting impact across the organizations she’s led, and we are thrilled to have her lead the next chapter of Forty5”, Davis, one of the three partners at Forty5, said in a statement.

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Rory Appleton is the pop culture reporter at IndyStar. Contact him at 317-552-9044 and rappleton@indystar.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RoryEHAppleton.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Vogue, Rock the Ruins promoter names new CEO