Board and Staff

TEAM Coalition Board Members

  • Chair - John Huff

    John Huff
    Chairman

    Live Nation
    General Manager for SPAC, Xfinity Theatre & St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview

    John Huff is the General Manager for Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), Xfinity Theatre and St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview for Live Nation. John has worked in the live music and venue management industry for over 21 years. He started his career in Houston for PACE Entertainment from 1991-1998 as Director of Operations for the Facilities Group and eventually became Vice President and General Manager for PACE Concerts. Between 1999 and 2000, John was the General Manager for the Sony Blockbuster Entertainment Centre in Camden, NJ in the Philadelphia, PA market.

    Between 2000 and 2004, John worked as General Manager for Live Nation at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) in Saratoga Springs, NY. Then, in 2004, John became Regional VP for the Northeast Region as well as the GM for SPAC. Since 2011, John has been the General Manager at both SPAC and the Comcast Theater in Hartford, CT.

    John graduated from Texas A&M with a BS in Psychology and an MBA in 1990. He currently lives in upstate NY with his wife Laura and sons Zach and Josh.


  • Vice Chair - Kevin Tedesco

    Kevin Tedesco

    Vice Chairman

    Aramark
    Resident District Manager/ General Manager Citizens Bank Park

    Kevin’s with TEAM goes back over 20 years when he took his first class and it culminated with being invited to his first annual meeting in Denver. It’s been a great journey.

    With over 20 years in the stadium & arena business, Kevin relates extremely well to the front line employee needs, training expectations and client perspectives, making him uniquely qualified to lead the training committee. With the new online training portal launching, Kevin’s ability to connect with managers, employees & clients across the country will allow for feedback to be registered, considered and implemented.


  • Treasurer, Co-Chair Governance & Finance Committee - Lester Jones

    Lester Jones

    Treasurer, Co-chair of Governance & Finance Committee

    National Beer Wholesalers Association 
    Chief Economist 

    Lester Jones has more than 20 years of experience in research, survey methodology and applied economics. At NBWA, Lester tracks the economic factors that impact the beer distribution industry and alcohol policy decisions at the federal, state and local levels. He evaluates and develops primary industry data, including economic impact, tax impacts, sales and volume data. Jones previously served as chief economist at the Beer Institute, where he developed and executed significant research initiatives that helped shape America’s beer industry.


  • Secretary, Co-Chair Governance & Finance Committee - Jeff Stonebreaker

    Jeff Stonebreaker

    Secretary, Co-chair of Governance & Finance Committee

    Major League Soccer
    Vice President, Safety and Security 

    Jeff currently serves as the Vice President of Safety and Security for Major League Soccer and oversees both domestic and international matches, Supporter Group Management, and Integrity training.  He was the lead security consultant for seven years prior to going full time.

    Prior to that, Jeff served with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Orlando, Florida.  He retired as a Major and in his 31-year career he worked a wide variety of assignments.

    Jeff is a Florida native and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Central Florida.  He also served in the Florida Army National Guard for ten years with an Infantry Scout unit.

    Jeff was a Security Advisor to the England Football Association for ten years spanning over 50 matches in 22 countries to include the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the Euro 2012 tournament in Poland and Ukraine.

    Jeff has been married to his wonderful bride Kelly for 27 years.  They have three children and three grandchildren.


  • Marketing & Communications Committee Chair - TBD

    Anheuser-Busch
    TBD


  • Training Committee Chair - TBD

    TBD

    Training Committee Chair

    TBD

  • Membership Committee Chair - Matt Dye

    Matt Dye 

    Membership Committee Chair 

    Spectra
    General Manager, The Ocean Center Daytona Beach 

    With more than a decade of experience in the catering and food service side of the convention center business, Matt has a unique perspective on the role of alcohol management for large scale events. His experience with Spectra allows Matt to appreciate what TEAM members that are also training customers most value about their membership in the coalition. And at the same time, Matt brings a fresh perspective to TEAM Coalition as the organization charts new territory to redefine how it provides value to all members representing varied facets of the sports and entertainment industry.


  • Director-at-Large - Jeff Jannarone

    Jeff Jannarone
    Director-at-Large

    Alcohol and Drug Investigations/Dram Shop ExpertManaging Partner

    For more than two decades, Jeff has been a trainer and Master Trainer for TAM (Techniques of Alcohol Management), an alcohol server training program provided by the National Hospitality Institute. Jeff is also a certified TiPS trainer and a ServSafe Alcohol Instructor. Jeff became a TEAM trainer in 2020.

    Jeff has been retained by both plaintiff and defense law firms across the United States. To date, Jeff has been retained on over 200 cases, some of which involve sports stadiums.

    Jeff has his own consulting firm where his team conducts compliance inspections for venues both large and small. His consulting firm assists venues to become Safety Act certified by the United States Office of Homeland Security.


TEAM Coalition Staff Members

  • Executive Director - Jill Kiefer

    Jill Kiefer
    Executive Director

    Mrs. Kiefer joined the TEAM Coalition in the spring of 2002. Her past experience includes finance and marketing positions for Mobil Corporation. She was a financial analyst in the Global Treasurers group and the North American Marketing division as well as a field manager in the Mid-Atlantic Marketing and Refining area.

    Immediately before joining TEAM, she was the director of product management and client services for Cvent, a DC-based software company which offers online event registration and email marketing to associations and corporations.

    She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University and her MBA from MIT.


  • Chief Operations Expert - Christy Verbosky

    Christy Verbosky
    Chief Operations Expert

    Christy joined TEAM Coalition in October 2001 as a marketing assistant. Through the years, she has served in almost every role at TEAM Coalition. As Chief Operations Expert, she oversees the TEAM alcohol management training program, fan activations with MLB and all accounting. Christy is the staff lead for the Governance & Finance Committee.

    Christy graduated with her MBA and Bachelor of Science from Alfred University in New York State.


  • Marketing Manager - Jess Thurston

    Jess Thurston
    Marketing Manager

    Jess re-joined TEAM Coalition in March 2022 after a 5 year hiatus. Jess has 12 years of combined event, marketing and sales experience with a focus on ground-up sponsorship activation building.

    Jess manages all consumer programs, social media and the Responsibility Has Its Rewards sweepstakes for TEAM Coalition.

    Jess graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelors of Science in Business Management and Marketing. Jess lives in Raleigh, NC.


  • Alcohol Management Certification Specialist - Kionna Garrett

    Kionna Garrett
    Alcohol Management Certification Specialist

    Kionna joined TEAM Coalition in August, 2008. As the Alcohol Management Certification Specialist she manages the TEAM training certification program for Level 1 and 2 participants. In her time with TEAM Coalition, Kionna has processed the results for more than 250,000 TEAM training exams.

    Kionna was born and raised in Alexandria, VA and is a graduate of West Potomac High School.  

  •