Head of Partnerships

Who We Are:

Frieze is the world’s leading platform for modern and contemporary art, dedicated to artists, galleries, collectors and art lovers alike. Frieze comprises three magazines – frieze, Frieze Masters Magazine and Frieze Week – and five international art fairs – Frieze London, Frieze Masters, Frieze New York, Frieze Los Angeles and Frieze Seoul. In October 2021, Frieze also launched No.9 Cork Street, a permanent space for visiting international galleries in the heart of Mayfair, London. Frieze is part of the IMG network.

Who We Are:
Frieze is the world’s leading platform for modern and contemporary art, dedicated to artists, galleries, collectors and art lovers alike. Frieze comprises three magazines – frieze, Frieze Masters Magazine and Frieze Week – and seven international art fairs – Frieze London, Frieze Masters, Frieze New York, Frieze Los Angeles, Frieze Seoul, The Armory Show and EXPO Chicago. Legacy art fair brands The Armory Show and EXPO Chicago were acquired by Frieze in September 2023. In October 2021, Frieze also launched No.9 Cork Street, a permanent space for visiting international galleries in the heart of Mayfair, London.

We're looking for a Head of Partnerships to join Frieze on a fixed term contract for 1-year, this role will hold sales responsibilities and management of our partnerships team including direct management of four members of the commercial team.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities

• Alongside the Commercial Director, lead on driving partnerships revenue across all Frieze platorms, including Frieze’s portfolio of magazines, frieze.com, Frieze fairs, Cork St, Frieze FRAME Production Agency, Frieze Studios Consultancy and our membership programme

• Manage a team of sales people and account managers, with the aim of delivering growth in global partnerships revenue and delivering the highest quality account management for our existing sponsors

• Support the personal and professional development of a team of salespeople and account managers

• Ensure that Frieze’s longstanding partners renew long term agreements, with y-o-y growth in sponsorship fees

• Manage your own pipeline of prospects and clients, to deliver both new partnerships and renew existing contracts

• Budget for and manage team T&E spend across the year, liaising with finance to track

• Represent the partnerships team in internal meetings with other Heads of Departments to make key decisions on behalf of the department

• Liasie with other departments on behalf of the team, including Fair Directors, finance, production, Frieze Studios, FRAME and VIP

• Support the Commercial Director with financial forecasting

• Develop new sponsorship products, with the support of the team and to respond to client demand 

• Drive profit by managing cost of sale 

Please Note   e.g. shift(s)/ unsocial hours/ travel etc

• International travel required, to attend Frieze fairs and meet clients / prospects 

• Flexibility and longer hours often required

Key Results Areas

• Growing partnership revenue, both individually and with the support of the team 

• Renewing existing sponsors at increased fees

• Delivering strong sponsorship programmes for existing sponsors 

You Have These:

• Proven sales experience 

• Excellent people management skills

• Excellent client management skills 

• Commercial acumen 

• Ability to work under pressure

• High attention to detail

• Team player, proactive and enjoys problem solving

• Strong network of brand sponsors 

• Experience delivering complex and ambitious projects

• Experience handling difficult conversations with clients and colleagues 

• Exceptional communication and negotiation skills, both written and verbal

• Innate high standards and extreme concern for quality

• Highly organized 

• Proven commercial success

• Exceptional people management skills 

Working Conditions:

Fixed Term Contract, 1 Year Maternity Cover

Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm

Hybrid

Our Diversity & Inclusion Statement

Frieze unites people in our love of the arts. We understand this can only be accomplished when we harness the entirety of our company and lead with a lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion in everything we do. As a global company that drives culture, we are committed to practicing anti-discrimination including race, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability, together with artists, writers and cultural practitioners from all backgrounds. There is still much work to be done to address systemic inequality and discrimination within the arts and culture industry, and we are dedicated to making progress to both within our own organization and the art world at large.