STEVE ADELMAN

With a career spanning 30 years in nightlife, Steve Adelman has earned a reputation for having a sixth sense for ‘what’s next’ and for being an arbiter of pop culture.

Adelman received a B.A. from Kalamazoo College in Michigan, where he played basketball, and an MA in Economics from Boston College. After leaving his consulting role at Boston’s Charles River Associates, friends encouraged him to join their nightclub project. It was a good fit.

In 1990, Adelman moved to NYC to open the Roxy, where he served as Director. The groundbreaking project soon earned a reputation as the City’s top nightclub, putting Adelman on the national map. Only two years later, he was named Director of Limelight, and within three years had become Director for NYC’s largest venues, including Tunnel, Palladium, and Club USA.

In 1997, Adelman founded Adelman & Co and co-founded the Avalon nightlife brand worldwide.

At Avalon in Boston, Adelman launched the wildly successful night Avaland, which later expanded to NYC, LA, and Singapore. The weekly Friday night extravaganza, featuring world-renowned DJs such as Paul Van Dyk, Carl Cox, Tiësto, Sasha, and John Digweed, combined with weekly themes and state-of-the-art lighting and sound, became instrumental in launching EDM culture across the U.S. After opening Avalon and Spider Club in Hollywood, Adelman was recognized as one of the modern-day pioneers of Hollywood’s redevelopment, which led to its current boom.

Adelman serves as a nationally certified SCORE Association business mentor and as an Adjunct Professor of Economics at Southwest Community College in Memphis, TN. He considers writing a true calling and is currently working on a scripted TV series based on his experiences and on Off the Record, his second book.