Sasha Degen joins Sydney Festival from News Ltd
Sasha Degen is to join Sydney Festival as the new head of corporate partnerships, moving over from News Limited.
The announcement:
September 22, 2011 –
Sydney Festival today announced Sasha Degen will join the team as the new Head of Corporate Partnerships.
Sasha is currently Group Strategic Response Manager, Key Accounts and Commercial Development for News Ltd News Magazines. In this role, Sasha works as a strategic ambassador across 29 titles and associated News Limited assets including digital, print, custom publishing, events, sponsorships, global partnerships, social media and research projects. She has exercised strong corporate and agency relationships to develop above and below the line partnership solutions.
Sydney Festival’s Executive Director, Josephine Ridge, congratulated Sasha on her appointment. “We’re delighted to welcome Sasha and excited by the potential that her extensive experience and skills offers Sydney Festival; one of Australia’s largest annual cultural events. Our vast program of events is greatly supported by the quality of our corporate partnerships and we all look forward to working with Sasha as she ensures that the Festival continues to deliver on the promise of distinctive, creative and effective solutions for our partners.”
Sasha will begin at the Festival in late October, just in time for the program launch on November 2. “I am very excited to be joining one of the world’s preeminent arts and cultural festivals and to have the opportunity to develop new and exciting ways to attract and amplify our partnerships.
“Sydney Festival provides marketers with a truly rich and vibrant territory to position their brands alongside an arena for their communities to experience arts, culture and Sydney at its best. The beauty of this type of engagement is the potential to ignite valuable consumer conversation for partners around their brands and to open the door for unique content creation. No other festival in the world can claim Sydney as its backdrop, nor the calibre of performance and artistic direction it brings.
“It is this unrivalled opportunity I hope to extend to partners and create bespoke ways for them to forge deep and ongoing partnerships with the Festival.” Sasha said.
Sasha’s role as Head of Corporate Partnerships is a new position within the Festival structure. Malcolm Moir, currently Head of Business Development, will be taking on a newly created role of Head of External Relations and Philanthropy. In this role Malcolm will bring his profound knowledge of the Festival and his considerable experience to bear to expand the Festival’s support base, identify avenues for philanthropy and further develop relationships with its non-corporate partners.
In acknowledging Malcolm’s contribution to the Festival over the past 4 years, Josephine said “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Malcolm for his outstanding contribution to the Festival as Head of Business Development and to acknowledge his exemplary commitment and leadership in that capacity. The creation of this new role represents an exciting and necessary step in Sydney Festival’s resourcing and planning and marks an important move towards broadening our revenue base and creating increased financial stability.”
The other members of the existing Business Development team will move into the new Corporate Partnerships area made up of Corporate Partnership Managers: Catherine Bowe, Kate Armstrong-Smith and Kate Dezarnaulds; and Corporate Partnership Coordinator, Jessica Flood.
Around 650,000 people enjoyed the 2011 Sydney Festival, which included 109 events with 338 performances and17 free events throughout the city, and contributed $50.2m to the NSW economy.
The Festival receives significant support from its principal supporters, the NSW State Government through Arts NSW and Events NSW, the City of Sydney and new Principal Sponsor, Zip Industries. For the 2011 Festival, the income from the corporate sector was in excess of $8.5 million (both cash and in-kind support) within a total budget of $17.6 million.
Source: Sydney Festival press release
Sydney Festival 2012 will run from 7–29 January. www.sydneyfestival.org.au
