Career
Sexton began his career in production with the Ice Follies-Holiday on Ice. He was involved in all of the tasks related to the show’s production where he discovered an affinity for stage management and lighting design. Throughout the 1970s, he served as a lighting designer, production consultant, production manager or tour manager for dozens of stadium and arena tours for artists including America, Poco, The Rolling Stones, Jackson Browne, Diana Ross, Earth, Wind & Fire, Rufus & Chaka Khan, Chicago, Robin Trower, Red Skelton, and many others. [2]
Based in Los Angeles, Sexton was active in social, political, and environmental issues. In 1979, he was recruited by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member Graham Nash to produce No Nukes, composed of five shows at Madison Square Garden (which featured Crosby Stills and Nash, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, [8] among others) and an outdoor rally which drew more than 200,000 people on the then-empty landfill section of Battery Park. [9]
In 1984, Sexton partnered with MTV executives including Les Garland to create the "Feel the Power" campaign for the network. With 30 second public service spots featuring artists including Cyndi Lauper, Jimi Hendrix, and Tina Turner, its goal was to mobilize young voters and facilitate voter registration. It was the foundation of Rock the Vote, for which Sexton served as a director for several years. [10] [11]
Based on his work on the No Nukes concerts, which were the subject of a 1980 documentary, Sexton was pursued as a music supervisor for television and film. In 1983, he was retained by 20th Century Fox to oversee contemporary music for the studio. In 1984, he was named vice president of music at Columbia TriStar Pictures and in 1987, with Becky Mancuso-Winding, he co-founded the film music company Magstripe Entertainment. In addition to working with Winding, he served as a music supervisor and consultant for Fox, Disney, and producer Jerry Weintraub.
In 1992, Sexton co-founded Big Screen Records with Irving Azoff's Giant Records. Later, Sexton launched The Track Factory, a boutique film music company, with entertainment industry legend Sidney Sheinberg. [12] In 2000, Sexton was named President and CEO of Digital On-Demand/Red DotNet, which was later acquired by private equity firm Yucaipa and merged with independent home media distributor Alliance Entertainment, where he served as Chief Content Officer and Executive Vice-President of its Media and Entertainment Group. [13] [14] [15]
In 2003, Sexton founded The Sexton Company, which he described in an interview with The Washington Post as a company that "helps companies do well by doing good." [16] He began working with the Philadelphia Eagles on sustainability programs that same year. The team's Go Green initiative began with a recycling bin in every office and grew to include 100% exclusive use of renewable energy at their stadium, offices, and practice facilities. Sexton's Go Green program for the Eagles has become the benchmark in sustainability and has been emulated by the Seattle Mariners, the Atlanta Falcons, the Phoenix Suns, the Green Sports Alliance, and the Oakland As, among many others. [4] [17] [18]
In 2005, Sexton executive produced Live 8, a series of concerts conceived by Bob Geldof and designed to focus attention on debt relief and extreme poverty in Africa. More than 1000 musicians performed on a single day simultaneously at nine concerts on four continents, including Madonna, U2, Jay Z, Pink Floyd, and Paul McCartney. As executive producer of Live 8, Sexton won the first-ever Emmy award for content delivered via the internet. [2] [19]
In 2007, he was a producer of Idol Gives Back , then the most successful charity event in television history. To date it has raised more than $175 million for organizations working to alleviate poverty in America and Africa, and was awarded a special Emmy by the Governors of the Television Academy. [20]
In 2008, with his then partners, Brendan Sexton and Matt Walden, Sexton initiated a sustainability strategy and business development structure for National Grid, the second-largest energy utility company in the world. In 2012, the Sexton Company was renamed The Make Good Group and was featured in an Entrepreneur magazine cover story as one of top 100 companies to watch. [21] The Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE, a 2017 global $10 million competition for a consumer device which successfully makes medical diagnoses, was co-conceived by Sexton and wireless health pioneer Don Jones.
In 2022 Sexton collaborated with Austin Beutner, former Los Angeles Superintendent of Unified Schools, to architect the campaign Proposition 28, a California ballot initiative which earmarks approximately $1 billion annually for music and arts education in the state’s public schools. [22] Sexton is also the Executive Producer of Reconexion, a Spanish language docu-reality television streaming on Univision’s VIX platform. He is currently producing a documentary film on the lives and careers of Crosby, Stills, & Nash with White Horse Pictures and filmmaker Robert Zemeckis. [23] In 2024 Sexton began spearheading the acquisition and restoration of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in partnership with The Azoff Company, Oak View Group, Live Nation Entertainment, and Geyser Holdings. [24] [25] [26]
