City of Hope is one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States. Its Music, Film and Entertainment Industry (MFEI) fundraising group will present its most esteemed and prestigious honor – the Spirit of Life® award – to Jay Marciano, Chairman and CEO of AEG Presents. The award, whose honorees are selected for their notable contributions to the community in which they live and the profession in which they work, will be presented at a gala dinner later this year in Los Angeles.

One of the most respected executives in the entertainment industry, Marciano began his remarkable career as a concert promoter in his late 20s – presenting shows from such legendary artists as James Brown and Chuck Berry – before moving on to senior leadership roles at Universal Concerts, AEG Europe, and Madison Square Garden Entertainment, before returning to AEG in 2011. Under Marciano’s oversight, AEG Presents has promoted tours from many of the music industry’s biggest artists, including stadium titans such as Elton John, the Rolling Stones, Taylor Swift, and Ed Sheeran.

Marciano has been a crucial figure in the growth of the festivals business, overseeing a festival portfolio of over 30 festivals that include such iconic names as the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Stagecoach, Electric Forest, British Summertime Hyde Park, C2C: Country To Country, and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, among many others. Marciano has also prioritized the company’s global growth with the opening of several international offices and an expansion into Australia, Singapore, Japan, and France.

Over the past 50 years, City Of Hope’s MFEI group has brought together entertainment industry powerhouses, such as Lyor Cohen, Monte and Avery Lipman, Jon Platt and Sylvia Rhone, to name a few, and has generated more than $150 million to improve outcomes for people with cancer and diabetes. Through the group’s support, City of Hope has made tremendous strides in raising awareness for its mission, as well as increasing access to life-saving cancer care for people across the country. Most recently, the MFEI group along with other community philanthropists and elected officials, collaborated to bring a first-of-its-kind mobile cancer prevention screening program to Southern California so that residents in underserved communities can access state-of-the-art cancer screenings and resources in more public spaces throughout their neighborhoods.