Jason McGraw, the group vice president who led the CEDIA Expo and Kitchen & Bath Industry Show teams, has departed Forge as a result of corporate restructuring, according to a LinkedIn post announcing the end of his six-year tenure.
The departure puts a familiar industry face on the organizational changes taking shape at the company formed through the combination of Emerald and Questex. It also comes at a consequential moment for CEDIA Expo, as its new parent company works to turn a promise of investment and a more connected event experience into a strategy the industry can see.
“After six great years with Forge (formerly Emerald), my time with the company has come to an end due to corporate restructuring,” McGraw wrote on LinkedIn. “While it wasn’t the ending I expected, I’m grateful for the experiences, opportunities, and especially the people I’ve worked with along the way.”
In the post, McGraw thanked colleagues, industry partners, and the CEDIA and NKBA communities. He highlighted KBIS being named the Greatest Trade Show of 2025 at the Trade Show Executive Gold 100 Awards and his receipt of Emerald’s Sally Shankland Mentorship Award.
McGraw said he is seeking another leadership opportunity in events, exhibitions, or association management and plans to attend IAEE’s Expo! Expo!
A New Structure Behind Familiar Shows
As Connected Design reported in August, Forge became the corporate identity for the combined Emerald and Questex business following Apollo-managed funds’ completion of the acquisitions in July.
The integration has since moved beyond branding. In a September 24 announcement, Forge organized its business around four market portfolios, with group presidents reporting to CEO Paul Miller.
Those portfolios cover Luxury, Design & Hospitality; Healthcare & Life Sciences; Lifestyle & Outdoor; and Technology, Media & Advanced Industrials. Forge said the leaders would work with centralized teams supporting content, experience, brand, digital architecture, and other functions.
The company described the structure as a way to strengthen customer relationships and connect its events, media, digital products, and year-round communities. That announcement did not identify McGraw’s departure or detail job reductions affecting the CEDIA Expo and KBIS teams. But it did hint at future changes that we’re now seeing, at least through McGraw’s own statement, start to play out.
Publicly available reporting reviewed for this article does not establish the total number of positions affected, identify his successor, or confirm additional CEDIA Expo or KBIS personnel departures tied to the restructuring.
As it stands, KBIS, which is just a few months away, sits under the Luxury, Design & Hospitality segment, which reports up through group president Gannon Brousseau. CEDIA Expo lives under the Technology, Media & Advanced Industrials segment, led by group president Rhiannon James.
What This Means for CEDIA Expo
The change in leadership follows an effort by Forge to explain its ambitions for CEDIA Expo and reassure the industry about its future.
During his Connected Design Podcast interview recorded at CEDIA Expo in Denver, Miller described combining Emerald’s large-event capabilities with Questex’s data and year-round engagement model. His shorthand for what customers increasingly want from an organizer was simple: “Help me meet people.”
That meant using audience insight to make more relevant introductions and measuring an event’s value through business outcomes and the return on customers’ time. He also described preserving the show’s identity while sharing resources and successful ideas across Forge’s portfolio.
Miller’s comments about investment offer additional context for the integration. He said the company would weigh customer feedback, historical performance, market conditions, and the strength of proposed ideas when deciding where to put resources. Describing Apollo’s support, he said its question was: “Where should we be investing?”
He also made employees part of his definition of success, saying he wanted Forge recognized as “the company to work for in our industry.” He praised Emerald’s staff and described retaining and developing talent as essential to an events business.
Those remarks preceded McGraw’s departure and were not an explanation of the restructuring. They do, however, provide a framework for assessing what comes next: how Forge balances changes to its organization with the industry knowledge and relationships needed to deliver the experience Miller outlined.
Our September analysis of that conversation pointed to the potential for a more intentional experience: helping integrators discover relevant technology, meet the right manufacturers, and leave with connections that support their businesses.
McGraw’s departure adds a question about who will carry that work forward. For exhibitors and attendees, the practical issues are continuity, communication, and how Forge’s broader strategy will translate into planning for the next show.
A leadership departure alone does not establish a change to the event’s schedule or future. It does make clarity about the team and its responsibilities more important as Forge moves through its integration.
For the connected design community, the next developments to watch are who assumes responsibility for the shows, whether additional staffing changes are confirmed, and what improvements customers can expect. Forge has outlined its ambition. The transition now puts greater attention on the people responsible for delivering it.
