Commercial Director (Frieze) in Leicester

About MARI Group

MARI is a global events and experiences company powering world-defining live experiences. Our portfolio of premium live properties spans sports, art, and entertainment — including the Madrid and Miami Open tennis tournaments, Frieze (a leading voice in contemporary art), and Barrett-Jackson (the premium U.S. collector car auction company). MARI also includes TodayTix Group, the global e-commerce leader for cultural experiences, connecting millions of customers with the best in live entertainment. MARI is reshaping the live events landscape — building a growing portfolio of category-defining events and brands that set the standard for what’s next, across sports, entertainment, art, and lifestyle.

At MARI, you’ll work alongside people who are passionate, curious, and driven — people who believe that live experiences have the power to shape culture, and who care about the work, the mission, and each other. We welcome outstanding applicants of all backgrounds and encourage everyone to apply.

About the Role

This is a maternity cover role for Frieze’s Chief Commercial Officer. This is a full-time contract role and qualified candidates must be based in London.

What Success Looks Like

• Responsible for maintaining sales momentum in her absence and ensuring that partnership and advertising revenues hit budget and that there is a robust pipeline across the next 12 months.
• Build relationships with prospective clients globally; manage a pipeline of hundreds of prospective sponsors and ensure that these are attended to by the team.
• Maintain strong relationships with existing sponsors and clients.
• Manage costs across both departments in order to deliver against budget.
• Provide regular financial forecasts for all advertising and sponsorship revenue and cost streams.
• Review and refine all sponsorship pitches before they are issued to clients.
• Draft, review and manage all commercial contractual agreements with support from legal.
• Represent Frieze to drive MARI-wide commercial projects.
• Collaborate with senior MARI stakeholders and the MARI sales team to share knowledge and support revenue growth across other MARI assets, where possible.
• Lead weekly sales meetings with sales leads for both the partnerships and advertising sales teams.
• Monitor performance of salespeople vs individuals financial targets and redistribute responsibilities accordingly.
• Work closely with the CEO, COO, Finance Director and Heads of Departments to ensure smooth delivery of all advertising and partnerships related business.
• Lead a team of 19+ employees across two departments – Partnerships & Advertising Sales.
• Commercial revenue growth across advertising sales and partnerships.
• Accurate budgeting and forecasting.
• Development of a strong team of motivated, high performing salespeople and account managers.
• Innovation – developing new commercial opportunities for Frieze across partnerships and advertising.
• International travel to attend Frieze fairs and meet clients is required.
• Flexibility around working hours often required.

What You Bring

Mandatory

• Extensive experience in a sales role.
• Proven experience of generating commercial revenue through sponsorship deals.
• A strong portfolio of contacts with global businesses – in particular in the luxury sector.
• A strong understanding of print and digital advertising models and proven experience in driving advertising revenue.
• Experience managing commercial teams.
• Extraordinary interpersonal skills and the ability to manage difficult conversations, both with clients and employees.
• Experience delivering complex and ambitious projects, both at physical events and digitally.
• Experience of managing a wide range of activities and the ability to prioritise and meet deadlines.
• Ability to work under pressure, with high attention to detail.
• Proactive and enjoys problem-solving.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the art world.

Benefits

• Hybrid work environment (blend of in-office and at-home days).
• Pension match and access to a bespoke pension scheme.
• Paid Parental Leave.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Enhanced gyms, wellness and financial wellbeing apps access via Wellhub.
• Flexible Paid Time Off.

MARI believes in the power of live experiences to unite people — and we know that can only be achieved when we reflect the full diversity of the world around us. As a global company that shapes culture across sports, art, and entertainment, we are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace and to practicing anti-discrimination across race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and beyond. We recognise that systemic inequality and discrimination remain challenges across the events and entertainment industry, and we are dedicated to driving meaningful progress — both within our own organisation and across the wider industry we are proud to be part of.

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 both within our own organization and the art world at large.