HOW I WORK
Every engagement begins from one foundation:
Find value that is not yet harnessed, and build the right infrastructure to harness and grow it.
There are three engagement models from which we can work together. Describe your problem and we will work out the best approach for your purposes:
Monthly Retainers
Fixed-term Projects
Embedded Roles
01.
Monthly Retainers
Ongoing strategic input on partnerships, brand, or commercial direction. For organisations that need senior counsel available on a continuing basis, without a full-time hire.
This tends to fit if:
You're managing an active partnerships portfolio, navigating ongoing sponsorship renewals, or building your organisation's commercial strategy over time and want that thinking available continuously rather than project-by-project. Well suited to arts and cultural institutions managing multi-year partnerships, or organisations developing a brand or placemaking strategy incrementally.
Typically includes:
Ongoing strategic input on partnerships, brand, or commercial direction.
Review and structuring of new partnership or sponsorship opportunities as they arise.
Support through key development cycles (e.g. funding renewals, board reporting, annual partnerships planning).
Direct access for strategic counsel between scheduled reviews.
Cadence:
Reviewed quarterly. Shaped around your organisation's actual partnership or funding cycle, not a fixed hourly allocation.
02.
Fixed-term Projects
For a specific challenge with a clear objective, and concrete start and endpoint.
This tends to fit if:
You need a new partnership or sponsorship structured, a narrative built for a transaction or campaign, or a strategy developed for a place or precinct — and want it delivered as a defined piece of work with a clear conclusion.
Typically includes:
Discovery and diagnostic work to map the opportunity or challenge.
Structuring of a new partnership, sponsorship property, or commercial model.
Narrative and positioning development — for a brand, transaction, or place.
A clear strategic deliverable: a partnership framework, a prospectus, a narrative strategy, or similar.
Timeline:
Scoped after an initial conversation. Typically, several weeks to a few months, depending on complexity.
03.
Embedded Roles
Senior partnerships or commercial leadership, in-house, for a defined, interim period.
This tends to fit if:
You're covering a leave, bridging a hiring gap, or need to lead through a critical period (e.g. a funding cycle, a major renewal season, or an organisational transition) and need someone who can step directly into that seat.
Typically includes:
Day-to-day management of an existing partnerships or commercial portfolio.
Stakeholder management across government, corporate, and philanthropic partners.
Reporting, acquittals, and renewal processes.
Handover and process documentation to support your team afterward.
Timeline:
Full or part-time. Typically a few months, aligned to the relevant cycle or gap.
HOW AN ENGAGEMENT BEGINS
We discuss the problem together, even if it's not fully defined yet.
We agree whether this is best addressed as a fixed-term project, ongoing retainer, or embedded role. From there, we scope accordingly.
You will receive a clear proposal outlining the scope, cadence, and next steps.
Once agreed, we begin the work.
Frequently Asked Questions
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A fixed project has a defined scope and a clear endpoint. For example, structuring a single partnership or building a commercial narrative for a transaction. A retainer provides ongoing strategic input on a continuing basis, reviewed quarterly, for organisations managing an active partnerships portfolio or building strategy incrementally over time.
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Both. Fixed projects are available for a specific, defined challenge with a clear endpoint, and retainers are available for organisations that want ongoing strategic input over time. Many clients start with a fixed project and move to a retainer once there's an ongoing need.
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Yes. Smaller, defined projects — such as a review of an existing partnerships portfolio — are a common starting point, and a natural way to test fit before considering an ongoing retainer.
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All three. Past work spans major arts and cultural institutions, non-profits, and commercial brands, including FMCG, luxury retail, and industrial manufacturing. The work is the same in either case: it all requires me to identify latent value that has not yet been structured, and create clear, sustainable methodology, narrative, and frameworks around applying that value.
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Yes, I work with organisations across Australia, the UK, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
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Organisations navigating genuine complexity — multiple stakeholders, ambiguous scope, or partnerships that haven't been structured yet — rather than single, well-defined deliverables.
If the problem is still taking shape,
that’s a good time to talk.
Partnerships, brand strategy, and place-based projects rarely take a clear shape from the outset. If yours feels more tangled than it first appeared, let’s work it through together.